Senate Pushes Ethics Cleanup

Rules Committee OK's Bill Boosting Transparency In Dealings With Lobbyists

(AP) 

House GOP leaders have also promised far-reaching changes in lobbying rules, although they have been slowed by dissension in their own ranks.

House Rules Committee aides said they may push for a temporary ban on all privately funded travel pending a study on how to differentiate legitimate fact-finding missions from fun-in-the-sun outings to warm weather resorts.

The Senate Rules Committee session also revealed different approaches to dealing with the lobbying scandal.

"This is a constitutional right we are fooling around with," said Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, warning against restricting the rights of lobbyists or other citizens to petition their government.

Lott said the emphasis should be on more disclosure rather than writing new laws. His bill, unlike others that have been introduced, would not double to two years the waiting period before a retired lawmaker could take a job lobbying Congress. It did not ban privately funded travel, as some have called for, or ban earmarks, the thousands of narrowly focused projects members insert into larger, must-pass legislation.

Lott's measure would require earmarks, and the massive bills to which they are often attached, to be made public at least 24 hours before a Senate vote, and allow members to raise a point of order that could eliminate specific earmarks from legislation.

An amendment by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., raised to 60 votes, up from a simple majority in Lott's proposal, the votes needed to waive such a point of order.

The committee also approved without opposition an amendment by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., that would prohibit a retiring senator from negotiating for a job in the private sector until his or her successor has been chosen or elected.

In the one party-line vote of the day, the panel rejected a Democratic alternative, offered by ranking Democrat Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, that he said would add some badly needed muscle to the proposal. Dodd's plan would have banned meals as well as gifts from lobbyists, further restricted privately funded travel, increased the moratorium for accepting a lobbying job to two years and required mandatory annual ethics training for congressional employees.

Senate Minority leader Harry Reid of Nevada said his party would continue working for "real reform" when the lobbying issue reaches the Senate floor. "The current proposal simply does not go far enough to put tough new rules on lobbying," he said.

One part of the Dodd substitute, offered separately by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., bans activities such as the "K Street Project," a GOP-backed effort to pressure lobbying groups to hire Republicans or those who supported the GOP agenda. It was approved unanimously.