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Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Rules Committee Markup of Lobby Reform Bill
This morning the Senate Rules Committee marked up the Lobby Reform Bill, aiming to make the legislative process more transparent. This afternoon there is a hearing on the same subject. A number of amendments were offered during the markup from Senators including Dodd (D-CT), Santorum (R-PA), Feinstein (D-CA), Durbin (D-IL), Inouye (D-HI), and Nelson (D-NE).
Perhaps most interesting was an amendment offered by Sen. Durbin (D-IL) calling for the end the "K Street Project," which he called a "partisan employment service." His amendment to stop Congressional recommendation of lobbyists was passed unanimously by the committee. Notably, after some debate on including measures of campaign finance reform in the bill, Committee Chairman Trent Lott (R-MS) stated that he "had hoped we would not get into the campaign finance area on this bill," preferring, instead, to keep those issues separate.
As CongressDaily reports, the legislation "leaves the one-year lobbying moratorium in place, revokes floor privileges of former senators who are now lobbyists and modifies gift rules to require senators to disclose within 15 days the acceptance of a meal or drink. On travel, the bill requires the Ethics Committee to conduct pre-clearance and post-trip reviews of privately funded member travel. It also would require disclosure for senators or staff who accepted corporate jet travel for official or campaign purposes."
Posted by Becky Lewis
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