Rep. Martin Meehan (D-MA) announced July 14 that he is filing legislation to strengthen lobbying disclosure requirements and reform the way the House of Representatives operates. Supported by Common Cause, Democracy 21 and Public Citizen, Meehan said the legislation is needed because "... never before have special interest lobbyists claimed so great an influence over the policy process." The bill does not have a number yet.

Rep. Martin Meehan (D-MA) announced July 14 that he is filing legislation to strengthen lobbying disclosure requirements and reform the way the House of Representatives operates. Supported by Common Cause, Democracy 21 and Public Citizen, Meehan said the legislation is needed because "... never before have special interest lobbyists claimed so great an influence over the policy process." The bill does not have a number yet.Proposals to create greater transparency in relationships between lobbyists and members of the House include:

• Searchable Database- A searchable, downloadable database of lobbying disclosure reports would be created to make publicly disclosed information easier to access and more useful. Electronic filing of federal lobbying disclosure reports would be mandatory in order to make the database viable and keep it current.
• More Frequent Reports- Lobbying disclosure reports would be filed quarterly rather than semi-annually, as they now are.
• Disclose Grassroots Lobbying- Reports would have to include the identity of grassroots lobbyists and list their expenditures and the issues they lobby on. Lobbying to members or shareholders would not be considered grassroots lobbying.
• Disclose Coalition Members- Coalitions that lobby would have to disclose their members. Groups that spend less than $1,000 to participate would not have to be disclosed.
• Links to FEC Database- Cross-linking between the lobby disclosure reports and the Federal Election Commission's database with campaign contributions and expenditures would be required.

The bill proposed to give the minority party in the House more input, including the right to propose amendments on floor votes and have notice of conference committee meetings. A 30 minute maximum time limit for floor votes would be imposed to avoid arm twisting, and late night votes could only be held if approved by a two-thirds majority of the House. The House Administration Committee would be comprised of an equal number of members from both major parties, and the minority party would have a majority on the Government Reform Committee.

Stronger ethics standards would be imposed, including increasing the one year prohibition on former Members of Congress lobbying on issues that came up in their committees while they served in the House to three years.

Meehan's office has posted a PowerPoint presentation explaining the proposals on his website.