Democrats Bring Sweeping Ethics Reform

The US Senate has passed Senate Bill 1 and it will become law unless George Bush vetos it; which he is not expected to do.

Here are some of the highlights of the bill courtesy of CQPolitics:

- Senators will no longer be able to take gifts or junkets from lobbyists.

- Senate spouses will be banned from the lobbying business, unless they were lobbyists before their spouse’s most recent election or before they married a senator.

- Senators and their top aides will have to notify the Ethics Committee within three days when they begin negotiating new jobs.

- Some of the bill’s provisions have already been put into practice. Senate appropriators, for example, have begun including lists of earmark sponsors in committee reports. New Senate rules will require appropriators to continue doing that.

- Senators will be able to attack earmarks on the floor with a point of order triggering an hour of debate, and it will take a three-fifths majority vote to retain the provision.

- Another new point of order will be available to challenge “dead of night” provisions — items that show up in a conference report but did not appear in either the House or Senate versions of the legislation. Unless a three-fifths majority wants to keep such a provision, the offending language would be removed.

- Matching a House rule, the new law would prohibit senators from influencing private hiring based on party affiliation — an effort to prevent future dabbling in decisions by lobbying firms along K Street.

- And lawmakers in either chamber convicted of felonies including bribery and fraud would see their government pensions reduced, receiving only the portion they contributed.

- New restrictions on free travel would ban many trips but allow senators to enjoy one-day journeys at others’ expense. Also still legal: trips financed by nonprofits and universities.

- Senators will still be able to anonymously block a request for unanimous consent, but only for six days. After that, the senator’s name would be disclosed unless the objection was withdrawn.

- After Dec. 31, senators, top aides and top administration officials would have to wait two years after leaving office before lobbying Congress. The House chose to keep its one-year “cooling off” period.

- When former members of the House or Senate begin to lobby, they will lose their access to their former chamber’s floor and gym.

- Also starting with the new year, lobbyists would be required to report their activities quarterly to the House clerk and Senate secretary. Those reports are now required twice a year.

- The bill would give the Federal Election Commission six months to draft regulations requiring campaign committees to report bundled contributions from lobbyists and their political committees that total at least $15,000 during any six-month period. The first round of those twice-yearly reports would most likely cover activity during the first half of 2008.

- Another provision of the legislation would be evident at next year’s national political conventions. Lawmakers would not be permitted to participate in events honoring them and funded by lobbyists, unless they are presidential or vice presidential candidates.

- Senators will have to certify that the funding they request would not financially benefit themselves, their spouses, children, parents, siblings and parents-in-law.

“That will really shut down the junkets,” said Craig Holman, a Public Citizen lobbyist. “Those are some sweeping bans.”

“This is really the first time that the American people are going to get a peek at how the bundling system works,” said McGehee of the Campaign Legal Center. “It is a foot in the door.”