Senate Breaks Impasse on Ethics Bill
The Senate passed a broad overhaul of ethics, lobbying and earmark regulations yesterday after Democratic and Republican leaders broke a two-day logjam over GOP amendments.
The Senate passed the bill by a more-than-comfortable margin of 96-2, after Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., agreed to give Judd Gregg, R-N.H., a vote on a line-item rescissions amendment next week. Reid also agreed to accept an amendment by Tom Coburn, R-Okla., that would prohibit lawmakers from pushing earmarks that would benefit them, their families, their aides or their aides’ families.
“We will restore the confidence of our citizenry in the United States government,” Reid said.
The bill (S 1) would ban senators and their staff from accepting meals, gifts and trips from lobbyists; prohibit senators from negotiating for private-sector jobs while still in office; create a point of order against bills that do not identify the sponsors of earmarks; establish a database of lobbyists’ contacts and activities; and force lobbyists to certify that they have complied with the gift ban.
“This is a classic example of bipartisanship here in the Senate at its very best,” said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who co-wrote the bill with Reid.
But Coburn, one of two senators to vote against the final bill, predicted that some of the most stringent provisions — including his own amendment — will never be enacted. “They’re going to be discarded once we get to conference,” he said.
The House has not passed any changes to lobbying law, so a conference committee is unlikely to convene any time soon. The House changed its rules governing earmarks, gifts and other ethics standards by adopting a resolution that applied only to that chamber (H Res 6).
Before the Senate bill’s passage, an amendment by Robert F. Bennett, R-Utah, was adopted deleting a provision that would have subjected so-called “astroturf” lobbying groups to disclosure requirements.
The lobbying provisions were opposed by interest groups as diverse as the conservative Traditional Values Coalition and the liberal American Civil Liberties Union, and Bennett’s amendment was adopted, 55-43.
The Senate rejected, 27-71, an amendment that would have created an independent Office of Public Integrity with the power to investigate ethics complaints and make recommendations to the Senate Select Ethics Committee.
Amendments Adopted
Despite the coordination between party leaders, it took two days of negotiation to break a stalemate on Gregg’s amendment and a series of others, several of which were included in the final bill.
Gregg’s proposal to give the president the ability to send packages of rescissions to Congress for up-or-down votes in both chambers tied the Senate in knots before he agreed to have it considered as an amendment to the minimum wage bill (S 2) that the Senate will begin considering next week.
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