The new Congress hasn’t hesitated to tackle the ethical issues that proved so degrading in the era of Tom DeLay and Duke Cunningham, when lawmakers and lobbyists grew too cozy – sometimes criminally cozy.
Public disgust with congressional corruption and unchecked spending played a big role in last autumn’s repudiation of the majority Republican Party, and Democrats vowed to use their new majority powers to clean things up.
As part of their promise to deal with six big issues in the first 100 legislative hours, House Democrats passed a set of rules that bans gifts or free travel from lobbyists, flying on corporate jets and that restrict other kinds of travel.
The Senate, following its more deliberative pace, then passed similar restrictions – and then went further, requiring more detailed reporting of some campaign contributions by lobbyists. (The Senate rightly rejected proposed reporting requirements for advocacy groups that had been opposed by everybody from the American Conservative Union to the ACLU.)
And what about those “earmarks,” the bridge to nowhere and similar parochial spending schemes that grew at an alarming rate in recent years? Both houses have passed varying provisions that require disclosure of which lawmakers are behind which particular projects. The House also approved a modified “pay-go” procedure under which new programs or tax cuts would require offsetting spending cuts elsewhere in the budget. (That tripped up the Democrats on another of their pet projects, trimming the interest rates on student loans, and forced them to stretch those cuts out over five years.)
The Senate ethics package will take effect only if it, or some version, is also approved by the House and signed by the president. That will give lawmakers a chance to examine possible loopholes that could dilute its effectiveness.
There’s a potential pitfall regarding campaign contributions.
Some observers think the tighter rules for gifts and travel will simply channel more lobbyist and interest-group cash into campaign contributions.
A man who should know, Paul A. Miller, former president of the American League of Lobbyists, says the Senate bill “puts us in danger of making the system even more corrupt than it is now, largely because the bill would move a lot of lobbying contacts into the realm of campaign finance.”
Still, compared to the past Congress, lawmakers should be commended for tackling their own ethical guidelines.
