Just days after Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) was sent to jail on bribery charges, the Senate is debating new ethics and lobbying rules, while the House ponders its next move. The Senate will likely vote on legislation this week or next week.

On March 6, the Senate began debating S. 2349, the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act that addresses reporting and disclosure requirements for lobbyists, and S. 2128, the Lobbying Transparency and Accountability Act. S. 2349, focusing on changes to existing Senate rules on earmarks, gifts and travel and which moved out of the Senate Rules Committee on March 1. The debate is expected to extend into next week, depending on the number of amendments, despite Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) calling for work on the legislation to be finished by the end of the week.

On March 3, Frist said he plans to combine the two bills for vote on the Senate floor. If creating a cohesive reform bill proves too difficult, however, some provisions would be removed and taken up separately.

S. 2349, introduced by Sen. Trent Lott (R-MI), would make it easier to raise a point of order against earmarks, allowing senators the ability to easily strike provisions for special projects common in spending bills. Lott's legislation would also require the posting of conference reports on the Internet for at least 24 hours before the Senate could vote on them, and create new rules for disclosing member and staff travel and require disclosure on a member's website, when a lobbyist pays for any meals or drinks for a member of Congress or staff. For more on S. 2349, see Senate Rules Committee Passes Process Reforms, OMB Watcher [March 7, 2006].

S. 2128, a substitute bill, introduced by Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT) during a March 2 markup by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC), was originally introduced by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). The bill would require more frequent filing of lobbyist disclosure forms; require lobbyists to disclose their campaign contributions; and increase from one year to two years the time that lawmakers and senior staff are barred after leaving Congress before they can lobby their former colleagues. A number of provisions are expected to be spur contentious floor debate, including a requirement for nonprofits to disclose their grassroots expenditures; a provision regarding how new requirements will be enforced; and limits on the use of corporate jets.

In the March 2 markup of S. 2128, Lieberman and Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) offered an amendment to change requirements under the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) to include grassroots lobbying. The amendment passed, 10-6. Key elements of the grassroots lobbying provision:

• While grassroots lobbying expenditures would not be used to calculate if an organization is required to report, expenditures of $25,000 or more per quarter 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 grassroots lobbying efforts would also need not be reported.

   

• 501(c)(3) organizations are allowed to use the tax code definitions of grassroots lobbying in place of the new definitions.

This provision, currently opposed by a coalition of conservative groups, would help level the current uneven playing field, where wealthy interests spend enormous sums on paid mass communications aimed at lawmakers. Many of these "Astroturf" campaigns are carried out under appealing names that mask the corporate interests behind them. Successful reforms would change this dynamic, giving the public information about who is funding advertising campaigns during legislative debates.

Another controversial provision was defeated in committee. The Collins-Lieberman bill originally included a provision to create an Office of Public Integrity, which would be responsible for investigating ethics complaints and referring cases to both the House and Senate Ethics Committees. Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH), who serves on this committee and is also the chair of the Select Committee on Ethics, led the effort, which was joined by other Ethics Committee members, to successfully strip the independent ethics office provision from the bill. Collins, McCain, and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) are expected to fight for reinserting the public integrity office provision.

Lieberman will reportedly offer an amendment that would make lawmakers who fly on privately-sponsored jets pay the full market price for those trips. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), is expected to oppose the amendment, citing the needs of members from large rural states that often depend on private planes to traverse their states.

The Democrats may try to offer an amendment to ban all privately funded travel, although a similar provision was rejected by senators during the drafting process.

How the House will act on lobby reform remains unclear. Despite the slew of ethics reform bills pending in committee, Republican leaders have not backed specific legislation. The House Rules Committee has held a hearing on the subject, which took place March 2 and is the first in a series to determine how to improve House gift and travel rules. At the hearing, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), the committee's ranking member, advocated for the House Democrats reform package, offered on March 1 to "crack down on the serial abuses of the conference process." Rules Chairman David Dreier (R-CA) noted that reform has begun in the form of a House resolution eliminating floor and gym privileges for former members. He went on to say that he hopes to incorporate "portions of [the Democrat proposal]" into an eventual committee reform bill. The next House Rules committee hearing is scheduled for March 9 at 10am.