Wednesday, July 11, 2007

"Move Lobby Reform Legislation Forward"

OMB Watch has released a press statement in response to recent actions that have blocked the Senate from going to conference on lobbying and ethics reform legislation. The latest Watcher has an article on the fruitless attempts to send the measure to conference.

We understand that at least one senator is blocking this bill from moving forward to ensure the senator's provision is part of the conference negotiation. OMB Watch concurs that both the House and Senate bills could be made stronger. But the best way to make that happen is to move to a conference where the better of the two bills can be approved by Congress and signed into law by the president.

An editorial in Roll Call ($$) calls on Senators to go along with Senator DeMint's (R-SC) request on earmarks "so disclosure of spending requests is not delayed until President Bush signs an ethics reform measure that still has not even gone to a House-Senate conference."