CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Updated July 18, 2008 – 12:02 p.m.
Revised Guidance Eases Some New Lobbying Rules
By Bart Jansen and Kathleen Hunter, CQ Staff
With reporting deadlines looming, congressional officers have issued revised guidelines that ease some of the lobbying disclosure requirements enacted last year.
The revised guidance, issued by the Clerk of the House and Secretary of the Senate, relaxed the rules for disclosure of lobbyist contributions to parties at this summer’s Democratic and Republican national conventions, among other changes.
Some experts criticized the changes as backsliding, but leaders of outside watchdog groups said Democratic leaders had “reached out” to vet the revisions in advance of their release.
Republican leaders were quick to distance themselves from the revisions.
“We were not consulted on this matter and the Democrats took this action on their own,” said Kevin Smith, a spokesman for Minority Leader John A. Boehner , R-Ohio.
Smith declined to comment on the substance of the changes, saying that Boehner’s staff first learned of them early Friday and was still working through them.
A spokesman for Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., defended the revisions.
“These revisions were an attempt to address legitimate concerns. The offices of the House Clerk and Secretary of the Senate have said they will continue to revise as needed, so if these prove to be too narrow, we will change them,” the spokesman said.
House and Senate ethics guidelines for members attending convention-related events have not changed, a House ethics panel aide said. Lawmakers are still responsible for following the guidelines issued by their respective chambers.
Natalie Ravitz, a spokeswoman for Ethics Chairwoman Barbara Boxer , D-Calif., referred inquiries to the Secretary of the Senate, saying that the ethics panel was not involved in the change.
The disclosure changes, issued late July 16, exempt a lobbyist from reporting spending for an event listing a lawmaker as “attendee” or “special invitee,” as opposed to the honored guest.
The new guidelines also exempt from disclosure money a lobbyist raises for a charity that is not created or controlled by a lawmaker by sponsoring an event that names a lawmaker as an “honorary co-host.
“The purpose of the event is to raise funds for [charity], not to honor or recognize” the lawmaker, according to the guidance.
Revised Guidance Eases Some New Lobbying Rules
Under the new guidance lobbyists are no longer automatically required to disclose when they attend an event where a lawmaker is a co-chairman and the lobbyist donates at least $200, according to a senior Democratic Senate aide. Under the old guidance issued May 29, lobbyists would have had to disclose that they attended the event because a member of Congress had lent their name.
The changes open the Democratic leadership to charges that lawmakers are retreating from ethical reform that was at the heart of the 2006 campaign.
The rules are part of the implementation of an ethics and lobbying overhaul (PL 110-18) enacted last September, in what was hailed as the most significant reforms since Watergate.
Democrats in 2006 won back control of both chambers of Congress for the first time in a dozen years by campaigning against a “culture of corruption” that included criminal charges for influence peddling between lawmakers and lobbyists.
Some lobbyist reports must be filed by July 20, while others covering contributions are due July 30.
Kenneth A. Gross, a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP said described the new guidance as a misguided attempt to fix overly burdensome reporting requirements. He said it will leave in place only “a tiny fraction of what would have been disclosed previously.”
“There was a genuine interest in working out the kinks but in doing so they probably went too far,” said Gross, who specializes in campaign finance and election law, adding “The pendulum has swung dramatically to the other side.”
As Gross explained it, under the old guidance, lobbyists were required to disclose any event they paid a fee to attend where a lawmaker spoke. Now, lobbyists would only have to disclose their attendance at events for which their organization is primary sponsor and where a lawmaker is given a formal honor, such as a plaque.
“That has the effect of limiting virtually all disclosures,” Gross said. “I can’t even imagine a convention event been listed.”
Meredith McGehee, policy director for the Campaign Legal Center, voiced less concern. She said the change was designed to prevent every lobbyist from having to report every ticket they bought to an event that any lawmaker attended.
“I know the Senate leadership office reached out to a number of people making sure they wanted to get this right,” McGehee said. “There have been many attempts to punch big loopholes in the law. I don’t think this falls into that category.”
Another watchdog group leader echoed that assessment.
“Our sense is that this is not an effort to open up loopholes in the law,” said Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer. “But we also think it needs to be carefully enforced by the clerk and the secretary of the Senate to make sure that no one misuses the rules.”
Revised Guidance Eases Some New Lobbying Rules
Wertheimer said Democracy 21 had had some general discussions with people on Capitol Hill about the changes but had not been in direct contact with the Secretary of the Senate or the Clerk of the House.
Complaints from labor unions and non-profits about the earlier guidance appear to have helped prompt the changes.
On July 8, a lawyers representing the AFL-CIO, the National Education Association and other labor and nonprofit organizations sent a 10-page letter to Secretary of the Senate Nancy Erickson and Clerk of the House Lorraine Miller asserting that the earlier May 29 guidance significantly misinterpreted the lobbying law and asked for it to be refined.
The May 29 guidance would “both chill ordinary interaction and association with members of Congress and impose undue and unreasonable record-keeping and reporting burdens on registrants and their employed lobbyists,” the attorneys wrote.
“Due to the threat of criminal penalties for violation of the reporting requirements ... the result of the guidance provided thus far will cause registrants to disclose contributions and disbursements made by entities over which exercises no real authority and to entities to which a covered official has only a tangential connection. This, in turn, will serve only to clutter the public record with unnecessary and misleading information and diminish the public’s ability to accurately evaluate the influence of money in the legislative process, thus undermining the legislative intent.”
Molly Hooper contributed to this story.
First posted July 18, 2008 11:18 a.m.
Comments
"Honesty is the best policy" is a guideline. Do the lobbyist guidelines have any legal weight? FREE AMERICA DIRECT DEMOCRACY
POST A COMMENT
Oops! The following errors must be addressed: