Rhino
08-02-2007, 02:43 PM
Senate Passes Lobbying, Ethics Reforms
Thursday, August 02, 2007
By Major Garrett and Trish Turner
WASHINGTON — The Senate passed an ethics and lobbying reform bill on Thursday as a bipartisan coalition steamrolled dwindling cries to block it by conservative Republicans who complained the bill "gutted" proposed earmark reforms....
...Enacted in the legislation are other limits including:
-- Expanded "revolving-door rules": Senators and Senate staff must wait two years before accepting a lobbying job; House members and staff still only have to wait one year.
-- Contributions to presidential libraries: Lobbyists must now disclose their donations to presidential libraries, something previously not required.
-- Campaign finance disclosures: Lawmakers would have to include in their campaign finance reports the names of lobbyists who raised $15,000 or more for their campaign during a six-month period.
-- Earmark disclosures: A list of earmarks will be published and available in a database to be made public 48 hours in advance of a vote on the bill; Earmarks added in conference reports could be challenged and stripped from the bill with a 60-vote majority.
Before the vote, White House spokesman Tony Snow criticized the earmark disclosure rule, saying it had been gutted from its previous intent.
"At the beginning of the year, members of the House and Senate all agreed that it would be very important to make all earmarks transparent. In other words, identify an earmark, say who requested it, say what the purpose is and who would benefit from it," he said in his daily briefing to reporters.
"Now all of that is basically gone. As a matter of fact, the language has been considerably weakened. And furthermore, the reporting requirements have been reduced basically to no requirements at all," he said....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,291876,00.html
Thursday, August 02, 2007
By Major Garrett and Trish Turner
WASHINGTON — The Senate passed an ethics and lobbying reform bill on Thursday as a bipartisan coalition steamrolled dwindling cries to block it by conservative Republicans who complained the bill "gutted" proposed earmark reforms....
...Enacted in the legislation are other limits including:
-- Expanded "revolving-door rules": Senators and Senate staff must wait two years before accepting a lobbying job; House members and staff still only have to wait one year.
-- Contributions to presidential libraries: Lobbyists must now disclose their donations to presidential libraries, something previously not required.
-- Campaign finance disclosures: Lawmakers would have to include in their campaign finance reports the names of lobbyists who raised $15,000 or more for their campaign during a six-month period.
-- Earmark disclosures: A list of earmarks will be published and available in a database to be made public 48 hours in advance of a vote on the bill; Earmarks added in conference reports could be challenged and stripped from the bill with a 60-vote majority.
Before the vote, White House spokesman Tony Snow criticized the earmark disclosure rule, saying it had been gutted from its previous intent.
"At the beginning of the year, members of the House and Senate all agreed that it would be very important to make all earmarks transparent. In other words, identify an earmark, say who requested it, say what the purpose is and who would benefit from it," he said in his daily briefing to reporters.
"Now all of that is basically gone. As a matter of fact, the language has been considerably weakened. And furthermore, the reporting requirements have been reduced basically to no requirements at all," he said....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,291876,00.html