On Mar. 2, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved the Collins/Lieberman substitute to S. 2128, the Lobbying Transparency and Accountability Act, legislation aimed at tightening ethics and lobbying rules for both lobbyists and members of Congress and their staffs. The committee approved a substitute authored by Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-ME) and Ranking Member Joe Lieberman (D-CT) to a bill introduced by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). The final vote was 12-1, with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) the lone dissenting voice. As introduced in committee, the legislation would:

• Require quarterly reports instead of current semi-annual disclosure.
• Requires the creation of a online, free searchable database containing lobbyists' registration and reporting available to the public. The reports must be available over the Internet within 48 hours.
• Doubles the amount of time House and Senate members and high level congressional and executive staff must wait until being able to lobby, from 1 year to 2 years.
• Requires registrants to make an annual disclosure of contributions to federal candidates and office holders, leadership PACs and political party committees — but not to their employers as previously proposed. Instead, registered lobbying employees would have to report contributions over $200 directly to a federal legislative entity.
• Requires disclosure of organizations that (1) contribute $10,000 or more to a coalition or association registered under the LDA; and (2) participates in a substantial way in the management of lobbying activities.
• Requires lobbyists to provide detailed documentation on travel they organize for lawmakers, staff and executive branch officials — including itemized reports of all payments, reimbursements and travel expenses, along with the purpose, final itinerary and sponsor list for the trip. Lobbyists also must disclose any other expenses they cover.
• Prohibit lobbyists from giving gifts to or sponsoring travel for members or staff, unless the gift or travel is in conformity with current House and Senate rules. Lobbyists would also be required to report gifts of $20 or more given to lawmakers or executive branch employees.

Eight amendments were debated during the markup, most of which were withdrawn. The amendments were:

• Lobbying By Family Members (Sen. John Warner (R-VA)): the amendment would prohibit spouses or family members of senators from lobbying that member or member's staff. It was withdrawn.
• Strengthen Ethics Committee (Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH)): The amendment would strike a provision in the bill to create the Office of Public Integrity to investigate ethics complaints and make recommendations to both the Senate and House Ethics Committee. Voinovich called the provision an affront to the current Ethics Committees and noted that the Office of Public Integrity would be costly. His amendment also included a provision calling for the Senate Ethics Committee to create an annual public report detailing its activities, including the number and type of ethics complaints handled. The amendment passed, 11-5.
• Outlaw "K Street Project" (Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)): The amendment would ban the "K Street Project" by specifying that members of Congress would be prohibited from taking, withholding or influencing an official act with the intent to influence a lobbying employment decision based on partisan political affiliation. The amendment was withdrawn after it was suggested that Lautenberg check with the Senate Judiciary Committee on jurisdiction.
• Create Lobbying Commission (Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN)): The amendment would create a bi-partisan "Commission to Strengthen Confidence in Congress". The Commission, which would have 5 members from each party, would evaluate the effectiveness of current congressional ethics and lobbying disclosure requirements and submit a report to Congress by July 1, 2006 and annual reports thereafter. The amendment was adopted by voice vote.
• Grassroots Lobbying Disclosure (Sens. Lieberman and Carl Levin (D-MI)): the amendment would change requirements under the Lobby Disclosure Act (LDA) to include grassroots lobbying. The amendment passed, 10-6.
• While grassroots lobbying expenditures would not be used to calculate if an organization is required to report, expenditures of $25,000 or more for grassroots lobbying would have to be disclosed for organizations already reporting under the LDA.
• The amendment excludes any grassroots lobbying communications to an organization's members. This is defined in accordance with the tax code definition — i.e. anyone who contributes more than a nominal amount of time or money to the organization or is entitled to participate in the governance of the nonprofit. Reporting would also not include communications directed at less than 500 members of the general public. Voluntary or unpaid efforts are not reported.
• 501(c)(3) organizations are allowed to use the tax code definitions of grassroots lobbying in place of the new definitions.
• Travel Disclosure Timeline (Coleman): Amendment would confirm that members have up to 30 days after travel is completed to disclose required information. The amendment was adopted by voice vote.
• Foreign Lobbying Disclosure (Levin): Amendment would require lobbyists for foreign governments to file any information required by law on an electronic form, to be publicly available in an online database. Withdrawn.
• Conflict of Interest Rules (Sen. Mark Dayton (D-MN)): The amendment would extend the revolving door restrictions to establish a two year cooling off period during which "covered" individuals would be barred from getting "personally and substantially" involved in matters that would benefit a former employer, for example. Withdrawn after members of the panel noted that while they appreciated the intent, the impact would be too far reaching. Withdrawn.

S. 2128 is now expected to be considered on the Senate floor the week of March 6. It is currently unclear whether it will move to the floor separately or together with S. 2349, introduced by Sen. Trent Lott (R-MO), marked up by the Senate Rules Committee on Feb. 28. The Rules Committee bill does not address grassroots lobbying disclosure.