Voting just hours after former lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced, the Senate overwhelmingly passed what critics are calling a tepid effort at lobby and ethics reform. Now the pressure is on the House, where leaders have struggled to balance the need to pass reforms with a rebellious rank-and-file that wants business as usual.

On March 29, the Senate passed S. 2349, the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act, by a roll call vote of 90-8. Senate Republican and Democratic leaders praised the final Senate bill as a bipartisan response to scandals that recently rocked Capitol Hill, involving Abramoff and former Rep. Randall "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA).

However, both good government groups and reform-minded lawmakers were disappointed with the final product, particularly because the bill offers little in the way of meaningful enforcement. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who introduced what became the framework for the bill at the end of last year, called S. 2349 "very weak" in its final form and voted against its final passage. Also voting against the bill were Russ Feingold (D-WI), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Barack Obama (D-IL), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Jim DeMint (R-SC), James Inhofe (R-OK) and John Kerry (D-MA). Obama was the lead person for the Democrats on the reform measure, and like McCain, felt the final product was weak.

Increased Reporting: Registered lobbyists would have to file quarterly reports electronically on their activities, instead of the current semiannual reports. The reports would be available to the public online in a free "searchable, sortable, and downloadable" database. Filing would be electronic in order to keep the database up to date. The threshold for filing under the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) would be $2,500 spent per quarter by a lobbying firm for a client or $10,000 spent per quarter by an organization on lobbying activities. The Government Accountability Office would conduct an annual audit of compliance.

Grassroots Lobbying Disclosure: A provision requiring disclosure of grassroots lobbying expenses over a certain threshold was retained in the bill. While grassroots lobbying expenditures would not be used to calculate whether 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 - that is, 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 also do not need to be reported. Additionally, 501(c)(3) organizations are allowed to use the tax code definitions of grassroots lobbying in place of the new definitions. The definition for other entities includes "voluntary efforts of members of the general public to communicate their own views on an issue to federal officials or to encourage other members of the general public to do the same."

Disclosure of Coalition Members: The Senate bill requires public disclosure (by the registrant) of organizations that contributes $10,000 or more to a coalition or association that registers under the LDA and substantially participates in the planning, supervising or controlling the management of lobbying activities. Such disclosure, however, would be waived for organizations that make the affiliation or funding of the coalition "publicly available knowledge."

Disclosure of Campaign Contributions: The Senate bill would require any person who registers as a lobbyist to report all political contributions they make over $200 on an annual form submitted to the Senate Secretary's office. An earlier version of the bill had such disclosure done through the LDA report that an organization submits, which would mean that an employer would see an employees campaign contributions.

Privately Funded Travel: : Privately funded travel (such as travel paid for by a nonprofit) would still be permitted, but subject to new requirements. For example, itineraries would have to be pre-approved by the Ethics Committee for certification that the trip is primarily for educational purposes, and lobbyists would be banned from such trips. A report on the trip would be required within 30 days of the lawmaker's return and would be posted on the Senate's website.

Earmarks and Other Items: Earmarks and other items added in conference to appropriations, authorization bills, tax or other legislation that were not part of either the House or Senate bills would be subject to points of order on the floor, and 60 votes would be needed to waive objections. If there are not 60 votes to override the point of order, the provision would be stripped, but the conference report would not be killed. Additionally, bills, amendments and conference reports would identify the lawmaker responsible for each earmark, including for revenue earmarks. However, there would be no specific method for challenging these earmarks. Finally, conference reports would be posted on the Internet at least 48 hours before a Senate vote.

Gifts, Meals, Drinks: Senators and aides could not accept meals or drinks from registered lobbyists, but could still accept meals valued at up to $50 from others. This must be disclosed on their websites within 15 days.

Revolving Door: The one-year ban would be extended to two years before members could lobby former colleagues. Senior staff would be banned for one year before doing any congressional lobbying.

Other Items: Floor privileges for former members of Congress who are now lobbyists would be revoked. Immediate family of Senators who lobby would be prohibited from having official contacts with that Senator's staff. There would be mandatory training for Senators and their staff on ethics. Finally, there would be a five-year Commission to Strengthen Confidence in Congress that would make recommendations on further strengthening lobbying and ethics reforms, including enforcement of laws.

When the Senate returned from its March recess, whether it would be able to move forward on legislation was unclear. On March 27 Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), however, agreed to withdraw his Dubai Ports World amendment to allow discussion on lobby reform to continue. The Senate then voted on two amendments. The first would have created an Office of Public Integrity to investigate possible violations of Senate rules. Members of the Senate Ethics Committee campaigned hard against the amendment, saying it would have undermined and duplicated that panel's diligent and discreet work. The amendment, introduced by Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Barack Obama (D-IL), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT), failed, 30-67. The second to receive a vote would have required public disclosure of the name of the Senator who placed a hold on a bill three session days after the hold is first placed in secret. Offered by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Charles Grassley (R-IA), the amendment passed, 84-13.

With over 80 other amendments looming, Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) worked hard behind the scenes to limit the number of amendments. On March 28 he called for a cloture vote to limit the number of non-germane amendments to the underlying legislation. The motion to invoke cloture passed, 81-16.

Several other potentially significant amendments were offered but dropped without a vote after one of the bill's managers, Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), raised a point of order that they were non-germane. These included proposals by Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) to require jail time for an officer of a nonprofit who uses federal funds to lobby. Also dropped was a proposal by Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) to impose donor disclosure requirements on charitable organizations that are associated with a member of Congress. For more on the Inhofe and Baucus provisions, see our paper, Senate Lobby Reform: Specific Provisions Relating to Nonprofits.

The Senate bill contains both statutory provisions and changes in Senate rules and procedures, but even the rules changes will not go into effect immediately. The legislation still must pass in the House, go through a conference and be signed by the president before it takes effect.

The House is scheduled to take up H.R. 513, legislation that would restrict the expenditures of 527 organizations during the first week of April, abandoning an attempt to combine it with lobbying reform. Democrats oppose limiting 527 organizations, because Democratic party-aligned groups have spent nearly twice as much as their pro-Republican counterparts.

The House leadership package, H.R. 4975, which Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) introduced shortly before the March recess, has been sent to five different committees, although the only committee to hold hearings has been Dreier's own Rules Committee. The five committees of jurisdiction are expected to mark up their respective components in early April, with floor action not likely until May, later than what the time frame called for by House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH). Dreier has said he was open to changing the underlying bill. "While I fully support the bill in its current form, I've been in Congress long enough to know that refinements will still be made," he said.

Dreier's third hearing on lobby reform, held March 30, gave members the chance to offer tweaks to the bill. Members who testified, requesting their proposals be included in the final package, indicated that House GOP leaders still face an uphill struggle to present a final bill that will garner strong support within the Republican Conference, or bipartisan support in the House. Member proposals included creation of an Office of Public Integrity; greater lobbyist disclosure; a blanket gift ban offered by Rep. Christopher Shays, (R-CT); increasing filing and disclosure requirement for foreign corporations and governments, offered by Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH); and at least doubling the so-called revolving door rule for members and aides who leave to lobby for two years, offered by Rep. Martin Meehan (D-MA).