President Bush signed the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 (HLOGA), S.1, on Sept. 14; revised House ethics rules took effect in March. The focus of these reforms has now shifted to implementation of the changes. Congressional officials have started developing the new forms and guidance that will be used by lobbyists to comply with the law. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has proposed new regulations to implement campaign contribution bundling disclosure requirements. From lobbyists to lawyers, nonprofits, and members of Congress themselves, all parties in Washington have begun preparing for these and other adjustments to their current practices.

Implementation of lobbying and ethics rules changes is an immense undertaking, impacting registration and reporting requirements under the Lobby Disclosure Act of 1995 (LDA). The LDA contains new rules for gifts to members of Congress, new congressional travel rules, new coalition lobbying disclosure requirements and much more. Lawyers who can explain the intricacies of the new law are in high demand. The House and Senate ethics committees have handled more than 1,000 questions from lobbyists and congressional staffers seeking guidance.

Even as the law and new rules are being put into practice, there are news reports about efforts of lobbyists and lawyers to find loopholes in the law. According to the Washington Post, "[A]bout 100 members of Congress and hundreds of Hill staffers attended two black-tie galas, many of them as guests of corporations and lobbyists that paid as much as $2,500 per ticket." Companies cannot buy the tickets, but reportedly purchase tickets and donate them back to the charity sponsors with the names of the recipients they want to attend the galas.

Travel rules

House members, senators, and their staff may accept travel funded by an entity that employs a lobbyist for a one-day event or fact-finding trip with pre-approval from the House or Senate ethics committees. USA Today reported how this exemption has allowed House members to continue to travel on lobbyists' dime. "In all, 22 House Democrats and three Republicans accepted nearly $40,000 in travel under that exemption, according to reports filed with the House ethics committee."

Members of Congress also now need to rethink paying for travel when campaigning for re-election. The FEC has proposed new regulations to implement air travel provisions which require presidential and Senate candidates to pay charter rates for campaign travel on noncommercial aircraft. House campaign travel on private aircraft is also prohibited except if the plane is owned by the lawmaker or his or her family.

Bundled Campaign Contributions

One of the most controversial parts of the new law requires registered lobbyists who bundle multiple campaign contributions totaling more than $15,000 to file reports every six months. This includes individual lobbyists, lobbying firms, corporations, unions, and associations. On Oct. 30, the FEC approved a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on Reporting Contributions Bundled by Lobbyists, Registrants and the PACs of Lobbyists and Registrants. The FEC asked for feedback on various questions, including whether the requirements for disclosure should extend beyond registered lobbyists to include money bundled by other employees of a lobbying organization. The FEC also proposed to apply the bundling disclosure requirement to campaign money bundled by a political action committee connected to a lobbying organization, "lobbyist/registrant PACs".

The FEC also left open the timing of the reporting requirement by offering two alternatives. One would require political committees to disclose quarterly any bundlers who gather more than $15,000, and the second would mandate semiannual reports that would aggregate bundling totals from the previous two quarters. Another issue raised by the proposed rulemaking deals with earmarked campaign contributions. Comments on the NPRM are due by Nov. 30.

Abramoff connections and the White House

Meanwhile, one of the high-profile cases that brought on the ethics and lobbying changes, that of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, continues to be in the limelight. A recent letter sent to the White House from Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, requested more documents relating to Abramoff's activities. The White House material is being withheld because it involves internal White House discussions. More than 3,700 documents have already been supplied outlining that Abramoff and his associates had hundreds of lobbying contacts with White House officials, billed clients more than $24,000 for meals and drinks with those officials, and provided officials with tickets to sporting and entertainment events.