Heading into the week long St. Patrick's Day recess, the House Republican leadership has formally introduced a lobbying and ethics reform bill, while the Senate has scheduled a vote for March 27. While both chambers are finally moving legislation, it is increasingly unclear what new rules will eventually be enacted, and whether they will change business as usual in Washington.

The House GOP proposal on lobbying and ethics reform has been under discussion for months, with Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-CA) taking the lead. On March 16, Dreier introduced H.R. 4975, the Lobbying Accountability and Transparency Act, as a single comprehensive bill. Reportedly, the bill will be divided into pieces and parceled out to six different committees, Dreier's Rules Committee; Judiciary; Ways and Means; House Administration; Government Reform; and Ethics. The legislation currently focuses on:< p>

• Disclosure by Lobbyists: The trigger for registering would change from $24,500 in a 6-month period to $10,000 in a 3-month period. The bill also requires quarterly, electronic reporting by registered lobbyists, including disclosure of campaign contributions, gifts, and lobbyists' past congressional and executive branch employment, but does not include disclosure of expenditures for grassroots lobbying or coalitions;
• Privately Funded Travel: Privately funded travel would be banned for the remainder of the 109th Congress, and the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct would have to recommend new rules by Dec. 15;
• Revolving Door: While the one-year waiting period for members and senior staff before they could become lobbyists would be retained, legislators would be required to inform the ethics committee of any job negotiations that could be a conflict of interest, and refrain from voting on any matter that creates the appearance of a conflict of interest;
• Earmarks: The bill would require the identification of sponsors of earmarks in an appropriations bill, and appropriations conference reports would have to specify earmarks that originated in conference, but there would be no simple method of challenging earmarks;
• Oversight: The bill would create an auditing authority for the House Inspector General to do spot audits on lobby disclosure forms;
• 527 Organizations: Finally, the bill would apply Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) restrictions to independent 527 organizations so that they can no longer raise unlimited amounts of money, and eliminate restrictions on party-coordinated expenditures.

   

House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) has said the bill will be taken up after recess. As rank-and-file members groused about some of the provisions, however, Majority Whip Roy Blount (R-MO) suggested the members take the legislation home over the in-district work period and return with suggested alterations. Consequently, the bill could change substantially before leadership brings it to the floor.

Both members and some organizations are focusing most of their complaints on the provision that would ban - albeit temporarily - lawmakers' travel paid by private interests. According to United Jewish Communities Vice President for Public Policy William Daroff, "There is widespread, bipartisan consensus that a travel ban and a travel moratorium are not in the best interest of Congress and are not in the best interest of public policy."

In the Senate, debate on S. 2349 resumes on March 27 and a vote is expected that evening. An amendment introduced by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), dealing with the Dubai Port World deal, is expected to be withdrawn. However, it is still unclear how the large number of amendments still pending will be dealt with. Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) has said that he expects to spend only a limited amount of time on the legislation so that the Senate can move on to immigration reform on March 28.

While leadership may spend the week convincing members to set aside their non-germane amendments (an amendment that would add new and different subject matter to a bill it seeks to amend), a few amendments will likely remain to be dealt with. A controversial proposal to institute an independent ethics and disclosure enforcement office, introduced by Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT), is a pared-down version of his previous provision rejected by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. His newest proposal would not give authority to the office to conduct ethics investigations of members, a sticking point in committee.

Also unclear is whether the Senate will consider an amendment introduced by Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT) to strike the disclosure of expenditures of grassroots lobbying by registered lobbyists. In light of opposition from many organizations, the fate of grassroots lobbying disclosure is uncertain.

In addition, while the entire legislation affects the nonprofit community by helping to offset the role money has in influencing public policy, amendments filed by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) could impact charities and their federal funds. Coburn's amendment, co-sponsored by Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), would require recipients of federal funds, if they are currently filing under the Lobby Disclosure Act (LDA), to disclose the following when they report:

• the costs and a description of any lobbying activities engaged in
• the name of any currently registered lobbyists that was paid money to lobby for federal funding
• the amount of money paid to the lobbyist.

Federal funds are described in the amendment as an "award, grant or loan".

Inhofe's amendment adds a penalty clause to Sec. 18 of the LDA, which prohibits 501(c)(4) organizations that engages in lobbying activities from applying for federal funds. The amendment adds a provision that, if a 501(c) organization engages in lobbying activities with federal funds, an officer of the organization can be imprisoned for not more than 5 years and fined.