Fact
Sheet - The Lobbying and Ethics Reform Act
The Feingold-Obama bill improves on S.
2349, the lobbying disclosure and ethics bill that the Senate
passed in March 2006 and that will be considered by the Senate
beginning on January 8. Our goal is to restore the public’s
faith that Congress places its interest ahead of special interests.
Banning Lobbyists’ Gifts
and Curbing Privately Funded Travel
- Prohibits lobbyists and organizations
that retain or employ lobbyists from giving gifts to Members
or staff. Includes exceptions for family members and personal
friends, campaign contributions, informational materials,
etc.
- Requires Members and campaigns to reimburse
for the use of corporate jets at the charter rate rather
than at first class airfare as is now required. Also requires
disclosure of itinerary, purpose, and identity of others
who were on the plane for any such trips.
- Includes new travel rules just adopted
by the House of Representatives that would limit privately
funded travel to one-day events with minimal lobbyist involvement.
Only organizations that do not employ or retain lobbyists
could pay for multi-day, educational trips. Pre-approval
by the Ethics Committee for all privately funded travel
is required.
- Prohibits lobbyists and entities that
retain or employ lobbyists from throwing lavish parties
honoring members at the party conventions.
Improving Enforcement of the
Rules
- Includes the Lieberman-Collins proposal
for an Office of Public Integrity to carry out independent
investigations of ethics complaints.
Slowing the Revolving Door
- Increases cooling-off period for executive
and legislative branch employees from one to two years.
Former Members and very senior executive branch officials
(cabinet members, heads of agencies) will be prohibited
from engaging in lobbying activities as well as lobbying
contacts for that period. This will prevent a former Member
from supervising or designing a lobbying campaign while
avoiding any direct contact with Members or staff.
- Former senior congressional staff will
be restricted from making lobbying contacts to the entire
house of Congress they worked for rather than just the employing
office as under current law.
- Requires lobbyists to disclose on their
lobbying registrations any previous employment with the
executive or legislative branch, rather than only such employment
within two years prior to acting as a lobbyist.
- Prohibits Members from engaging in negotiations
for future employment as a lobbyist. Requires senior staff
to disclose such negotiations for any future employment
to the Ethics Committee and obtain guidance on avoiding
possible conflicts of interest.
- Provides that any benefit available
equally and only to all former members of the Senate shall
not be available to former Senators who are registered lobbyists
(e.g., floor privileges, gym membership).
- Prohibits the staff of a Senator from
having any official contact with that Senator’s spouse
or family members.
Improving Lobbying Disclosure
- Requires lobbying disclosure reports
to be filed quarterly rather than semi-annually, and requires
electronic filing and Internet searchable databases to improve
public accessibility.
- Requires disclosure of the earmarks
that lobbyists have sought for their clients.
- Requires disclosure of grassroots lobbying
expenditures.
- Requires disclosure of members of lobbying
coalitions.
- Requires lobbyists to disclose political
contributions they make or collect, fundraisers they hold,
and donations to presidential libraries, inaugural committees,
and charities associated with Members of Congress.
- Requires recipients of federal funds
to disclose the lobbyists they have hired to advocate for
those funds.
- Requires electronic filing of Senate
campaign reports.
Strengthening Open Government
in the Senate
- Eliminates secret holds.
- Requires conference reports to be available
on the Internet for Senators and the public at least 48
hours prior to their being considered in the Senate.
- Prohibits “dead of night”
changes to conference reports after signatures of conferees
have been obtained.
- Provides a point of order against “out
of scope matters” in a conference report that were
in neither House or Senate versions of a bill. 60 votes
are required to waive this point of order.
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