Congressional Record Statement of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold On The Lobbying and Ethics Reform Act of 2005 July 14, 2005 Mr FEINGOLD. Mr. President, today I will introduce the Lobbying and Ethics Reform Act of 2005. This bill builds on similar legislation that was introduced in the House by Representatives Marty Meehan and Rahm Emmanuel. I have long believed that to truly serve our constituents well, we must reduce the impact of big money on the legislative process. I have devoted a great deal of time over the years to reforming our campaign finance laws. With the enactment of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act in 2002, we took several important, and I believe successful, steps to reduce the influence of special interests and return some measure of power to the American people. But campaign contributions are only part of the story. In fact, during recent election cycles, the amount spent on lobbying members of Congress once they are elected has been more than double the amount spent on getting them elected in the first place. Yet lobbyists and the lobbying industry remain partly in the shadows, even after the significant improvements to the disclosure laws enacted in 1995. Ten years later, the weaknesses of that law have become apparent, as have the weaknesses in the congressional gift rules that we passed around the same time. Recent scandals involving lobbyists have made very clear that if this body is to be responsive to the people, not just a narrow set of special interests, we must strengthen the disclosure rules governing the lobbying industry and close loopholes in the gift rules. The lobbying industry continues to grow at a startling rate. According to the Center for Public Integrity, over three billion dollars were spent on lobbying in 2004, nearly double the amount spent just six years earlier. This dramatic increase in lobbying expenditures has led to an equally dramatic growth in the number of registered lobbyists. A story in the Washington Post from June of this year reports that there are currently more than 34,750 registered lobbyists, which represents a 100% increase from 2000. Not surprisingly, a few powerful industries account for much of this growth. In the last six years, the pharmaceutical industry alone has spent over three quarters of a billion dollars on lobbying, enough to finance over 3,000 professional lobbyists. The insurance industry is not far behind. During this same period, insurance companies spent over 600 million dollars and employed over 2,000 lobbyists. Despite the growing presence of lobbyists on Capitol Hill, and despite the improvements made in the 1995 law, regulation of the lobbying industry remains inadequate. The Senate office in charge of overseeing lobbying disclosure reports employs fewer than 20 people, and the equivalent House office employs fewer than 35. Compare these numbers to the Federal Election Commission, which many people believe is itself understaffed, but which has a staff of nearly 400 to oversee and enforce campaign finance laws. Given these numbers, it should not come as a shock that oversight of the booming lobbying industry is not what we would like it to be. In the past six years alone, over 300 individuals and companies lobbied without registering first. One in five lobbying companies failed to file required disclosure forms. And the Center for Public Integrity reports that over 14,000 disclosure documents that should have been filed are not available, including documents relating to 49 of the top 50 lobbying firms. When the disclosure requirements are not enforced, it can only be expected that they and other rules relating to lobbying will not be followed. In the last six months, we have seen a number of stories in the press detailing the increasingly cozy relationship between lobbyists and certain members of Congress. We have seen stories of lobbyists funding international junkets for members, their families, and their staff, which include days on famous golf courses and nights in luxurious resorts. We have seen stories of members and their staff accepting lavish gifts and expensive meals from lobbyists. And we haves seen stories of lobbyists providing members with free access to their companies' or clients' corporate jets so that they can fly in comfort from fundraiser to fundraiser. But the enticements offered by lobbyists are not all quite so exotic indeed, many lobbyists merely offer plum positions in their K Street offices. According to a 2005 report, more than 2200 former federal government employees were registered as federal lobbyists between 1998 and 2004. Of those, more then 200 were former members of Congress. In fact, Public Citizen reports that nearly half of all members returning to the private sector accept positions in the lobbying industry. For congressional employees, the prospect of receiving lobbying positions, which often pay several times more than their current jobs, can easily create conflicts of interest and may affect the decisions they make in their official capacity. The problems with oversight of the lobbying industry are systemic and they are troubling. Even the minimal disclosure requirements of the Lobbying Disclosure Act are often ignored because lobbyists know they will not be penalized. The revolving door between the Hill and K Street spins faster than ever. And flaws in the gift rules are allowing handouts from lobbyists to rapidly increase the influence of special interests at the expense of the average citizen. I am told that it is not uncommon for lobbyists to perch themselves at the end of a bar and buy drinks for any congressional staffer who comes by. This is permissible under the Senate's current gift rules, and it shouldn't be. Lobbyists complain about pressure--if not outright blatant requests--from Members and congressional staff to pay for their food and drinks. Clearly, there is plenty of blame to go around. My bill addresses these concerns in four ways. First, my bill makes the lobbying process more transparent by enhancing the specificity, frequency, and accessibility of lobbying disclosure reports. The bill would require these periodic reports filed by lobbyists to identify the members of Congress with whom they met, divulge all past senior-level legislative or executive branch employment, and separate out and report the amount of money spent on grassroots lobbying efforts. Lobbyists would have to file these reports on a quarterly, rather than a semiannual, basis. And the bill would require the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House to make these reports available in a searchable database that would allow the public to gather information on lobbyists quickly and efficiently. The bill also requires the disclosure of entities that contribute large sums of money to lobbying coalitions. And it doubles the civil penalty for knowingly failing to file lobbying reports or filing false information. Second, this bill should slow the revolving door between Congress and the lobbying industry. It establishes a two-year waiting period for members, senior staff, and senior executive personnel to participate in lobbying. During this cooling-off period, members and senior executive personnel would be prohibited from engaging in all lobbying activities, including developing strategy for or directing a lobbying campaign. Staff would be forbidden from making direct contact with any members or staff who work in the House of Congress that used to employ them, rather than just the former employing office, as the law now requires. The revolving door provisions in my bill would also require members of Congress to publicly disclose their intent to seek outside employment if a conflict of interest exists. They prohibit members of Congress from taking official actions to influence the employment decisions of outside entities on the basis of partisan affiliation. And they affirm that no member should take official action based on the prospect for personal gain. The bill also prohibits registered lobbyists from taking advantage of special advantages such as gym membership, floor privileges, or access to certain areas of the Capitol that are offered to former Members of Congress. Third, my bill addresses the growing problem of privately funded travel and lobbyist gifts. Before sponsoring a trip for a member or staff, an organization must certify that the trip was not financed or organized by a registered lobbyist and that lobbyists will not participate in or attend the trip. After returning from the trip, the Member or staff must provide a detailed itinerary and description of expenses. My bill also creates a complete ban on lobbyists providing gifts to members and staff and on members accepting gifts from registered lobbyists. Those who file false certifications or fail to observe these rules will be subject to stiff penalties. Finally, the bill seeks to strengthen oversight of lobbying disclosure. A GAO report showing the old lobbying law passed in the 1940s was largely ignored and rarely enforced was an important impetus to passing the Lobbying Disclosure Act in 1995. The bill requires the Comptroller General to report to Congress twice annually on the state of the enforcement of the rules. These reports will help us determine if further improvements in the laws are necessary. These measures are not crafted as a knee-jerk response to the recent spate of troubling revelations about the relationships between certain members of Congress and the lobbying industry. Instead, this bill addresses systemic problems with the rules governing lobbyists. It has been a decade since the Lobbying Disclosure Act and new gift rules were passed and we now know that some of these rules are no longer sufficient to regulate a growing and evolving lobbying industry. It is now time for us to act again. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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