Jan 18, 2007 -- Statement by Reform Groups on Senate Vote Yesterday to Block Ethics and Lobbying Reform Legislation

No one should be confused about what happened yesterday in the Senate on ethics and lobbying reform legislation.

Forty-five Republican Senators voted to obstruct and kill the strongest ethics and lobbying reform legislation since the Watergate scandals three decades ago.

The Senate vote yesterday to block ethics and lobbying reform legislation comes less than three months after voters said that concern about corruption and ethics in government was more important to their vote than any other issue, including the war, according to national exit polls on Election Day.

Forty-five Republican Senators responded to the deep concerns expressed by the American people about the worst congressional corruption and ethics scandals in three decades by ignoring the interests of the American people and voting to kill ethics and lobbying reforms designed to clean up the Senate.

We are surprised and disappointed that Senators such as John McCain (R-AZ) and Susan Collins (R-ME), who helped lead the fight in the last Congress for ethics and lobbying reforms, and many other Republican Senators who voted for strong ethics amendments this week, suddenly have joined with longtime reform opponents in the effort to block strong Senate ethics and lobbying reform legislation.

Unless Senate Republicans who profess to support ethics and lobbying reforms switch their votes, they will be responsible for killing the very reforms they claim to support and for maintaining the corrupting practices that played a central role in the Abramoff lobbying scandals in Congress.

No credence at all should be given to the argument offered yesterday by Senate Republicans that the American people must be denied strong new ethics rules and lobbying laws unless they get to vote on an amendment unrelated to the bill that deals with a line-item veto.

No Senator can credibly justify to the American people killing ethics and lobbying reform, and thereby preserving corrupt practices in the Senate, in the name of pursuing a line-item veto.

This effort is nothing more than a cynical ploy and parliamentary manipulation led by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) who has spent his entire career in the Senate opposing, obstructing and filibustering campaign finance, ethics and lobbying reform bills.

Senator McConnell used every obstructionist tactic and parliamentary trick in the books to try to kill the McCain-Feingold soft money ban, and in the end he lost. Our groups will do everything we can to help ensure that Senator McConnell loses again in his fight to obstruct and kill ethics and lobbying reforms.

We applaud Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) for the strong and effective leadership he is providing on behalf of the strongest ethics and lobbying reform in the Senate in decades. It is essential that Senator Reid continues to schedule cloture votes for as long as it takes to defeat the supporters of the corrupt status quo and to win the battle to clean up the Senate.

We also thank all of the Senators who voted for cloture yesterday on the ethics and lobbying reform legislation, including the only Republican Senators who voted for cloture, Senators Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Norm Coleman (R-MN).

The battle to pass strong and effective ethics and lobbying reforms will continue in the Senate until it is won.

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