Senate Democrats Begin Work on Proposed Ethics Law Changes

[Ron Burgundy]

Bloomberg - Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Democrats who now control the U.S. Senate will spend the next two weeks on overhauling ethics and lobbying laws, after the House voted to amend its own rules.

The proposed Senate measure would bar lawmakers from accepting free gifts and meals from lobbyists. Lobbyists would have to file disclosure reports online four times a year, instead of filing paper reports twice a year. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) of Nevada said he'll support amendments to strengthen the measure, which is similar to a plan passed by the Senate last year that was criticized by advocacy groups as too weak.

``No issue facing this body is more fundamentally important,'' Reid said on the Senate floor today. ``When we make leaders accountable to the people, not to special interests, there's no limit to what we can accomplish.''

House Democrats approved more extensive restrictions last week as their first order of business since taking power. Democrats won control of both houses in November's election for the first time in 12 years, with 42 percent of voters in a CNN exit poll saying the ethics issue was ``extremely important.''

Republican Senator John Cornyn (news, bio, voting record) of Texas, a member of the Senate Ethics Committee, said the two parties should work together on a final measure.

``Ethics and lobbying reform are issues that deserve and demand a bipartisan solution as Congress works to strengthen the American people's faith and trust in their government,'' Cornyn said.

Corporate Jets

The Senate proposal is co-sponsored by Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (news, bio, voting record), a Republican from Kentucky. Reid said the Senate plans to spend the next two weeks debating the legislation and amendments before voting.

The House rules approved last week will ban lawmakers from flying on corporate jets and accepting gifts and meals from lobbyists. They also can't accept overnight trips from lobbyists and their organizations. Nonprofit foundations affiliated with lobbying groups can continue to pay for trips approved in advance by the House ethics committee.

The new House rules also require that the sponsors of pet spending projects, known as earmarks, be identified publicly.

The House new rules will take effect with no further action, while the proposed Senate legislation would need House approval and President George W. Bush's signature. The House can continue to require members to follow its rules if legislation enacted by Congress is weaker.

Proposed Amendments

Democratic Senators Russell Feingold of Wisconsin and Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) of Illinois are proposing amendments to the Senate legislation that would duplicate the House rules on travel, except that it would let senators fly on corporate jets as long as they pay the charter rate. Their proposal also would double to two years the waiting period before former lawmakers can become lobbyists.

Feingold and Obama would require Senate campaigns to file electronically with the Federal Election Commission, as do House campaigns, political parties and political action committees. Until now, Senate campaigns have filed their reports on paper.

``We may finally have a bill that is an appropriate response to the clear message we got from the American people,'' Feingold said at a news conference with Reid, Obama and eight of the nine Democratic Senate freshmen.

The Feingold-Obama proposal also would include an independent ethics office to enforce the new law and investigate complaints.

`Outside Mechanism'

``Some sort of outside mechanism is the key,'' said former FEC Chairman Trevor Potter, who now heads the Washington-based Campaign Finance Institute, an advocacy group. ``What we've learned is without some outside prod, the system won't work.''

Potter and others who support stronger ethics laws have said the Senate is not as motivated to act on the issue as the House. House Democrats have said they won eight Republican-held seats in November because of ethics issues, more than half of the 15 they needed to win control of the chamber.

``It's a much tougher sell on the Senate side,'' said Gary Kalman, a lobbyist with the Washington-based U.S. Public Interest Research Group. ``The biggest disappointment is they are starting with the bill that passed the Senate last year. It passed at a very different time, a very different understanding of where the public was on the topic of corruption.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net .