Mar 7, 2007 -- Reform Groups Urge House Members to Support Essential Lobbying Reform Provisions

Reform groups sent a letter today urging House members to support strong, comprehensive lobbying reform legislation and to vote for the essential lobbying reform provisions set forth in the letter, when the House considers its lobbying reform legislation.

The reform groups include the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters, Public Citizen and U.S. PIRG.

According to the letter, ''The House is expected shortly to consider lobbying reform legislation.''

The letter states, ''This is the next essential step the House needs to take to respond to the corruption, ethics and lobbying scandals in the last Congress that deeply concerned the American people. It follows the landmark ethics rules reforms passed by the House in January.''

The letter adds, ''In passing strong lobbying reform legislation earlier this year, the Senate has provided a minimum benchmark for the House to meet in acting on this important issue. There simply is no basis for the House to pass weaker lobbying reforms than the Senate has adopted. In addition, there are important areas where stronger reform measures than passed by the Senate are required.''

According to the reform groups, the lobbying legislation needs to include essential reform provisions to:

- Require disclosure by lobbyists and lobbying organizations of the total amount of contributions they ''bundle'' for a member of Congress or other recipient;

- Require disclosure by retained lobbying firms of the total amount they spend on behalf of a client on paid communications campaigns to influence the general public to lobby Congress;

- Strengthen the revolving door restrictions; and

- Prohibit lobbyists and lobbying organizations from funding parties at national conventions to ''honor'' Members.

According to the letter, ''The disclosure by lobbyists and lobbying organizations of the amount of contributions they collect or arrange ('bundle') for a candidate is a defining issue for lobbying reform. The House action on this critical issue will tell the country whether Members are serious about reforming the nation's lobbying laws.''

The letter states, ''Requiring lobbyists to disclose these 'bundled' contributions goes to the heart of the public's right to know about the efforts being made by lobbyists and lobbying organizations to influence congressional decisions. Absent such disclosure, a huge loophole exists in the lobbying disclosure laws.''

The letter adds, ''The Senate-passed lobbying reform bill contains a strong and effective 'bundling' disclosure provision that is also contained in companion legislation introduced in the House by Representatives Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Marty Meehan (D-MA).''

The letter continues, ''Our organizations urge you to support and vote for this provision and to oppose any efforts to weaken or undermine the provision.''

The letter further states, ''Our organizations also urge you to support a critical provision that would require lobbying firms to disclose the total amount they spend on behalf of a client to conduct paid communication campaigns to influence the general public to lobby Congress.''

According to the letter, ''This new provision being proposed in the House is fundamentally different and far narrower than the 'Astroturf' lobbying disclosure provision rejected in the Senate earlier this year by a vote of 55 to 43.''

The letter adds, '' The House provision only applies to lobbying firms retained by a client, and only covers paid communications campaigns by the lobbying firms to influence the general public to lobby Congress. The provision expressly states that it does not apply to any person or entity other than a retained lobbying firm. ''

The letter continues, ''Lobbying firms currently report the total amounts they receive from clients to conduct direct lobbying campaigns on Capitol Hill. The new provision would require lobbying firms also to disclose the total amounts they receive from clients to conduct expensive media and other paid communications campaigns to influence the general public to lobby Congress.''

According to the letter, ''Former members of Congress working as Washington lobbyists used to be the exception. Now it is a regular practice, with some 200 former Members reportedly lobbying Congress.''

The letter adds, ''According to a report by Public Citizen, during the period from 1998 to 2004, 86 of 198 members of Congress who left Congress, or 43 percent of the Members, became lobbyists.''

The letter states, ''The current rules establish a one-year period in which former Members, senior executive branch officials and senior congressional staff cannot lobby their former colleagues. The breadth of former colleagues who cannot be lobbied during this period varies depending on the group of former officials involved.''

The letter adds, ''Our organizations urge you to support increasing the one-year revolving door ban to two years for all officials covered by the restriction, as the Senate-passed bill does.''

The letter also points out that while current revolving door restrictions prohibit former members of Congress ''from having direct lobbying contacts with Congress for pay for one year after they leave their jobs, they allow Members to engage in other lobbying activities to influence Congress for pay during this period, including planning and directing lobbying campaigns, and participating in lobbying strategy sessions.''

The letter states, ''Our organizations urge you to support a provision to close this serious loophole by extending the revolving door ban to cover lobbying activities, not just lobbying contacts, by former Members to influence Congress, as the Senate-passed bill does.''

According to the letter, ''Lobbyists and lobbying organizations are paying for lavish parties at the national conventions to 'honor' a Member or members of Congress. This includes parties to 'honor' members of a committee and members of a state delegation.''

The letter continues, ''These parties often involve lobbyists and lobbying organizations paying for an expensive party to 'honor' a Committee Chairman or the members of a powerful Committee with jurisdiction over legislation being sought by the lobbyist or lobbying organization.''

The letter states that this major loophole in the rules restricting gifts, ''means that a lobbyist or lobbying organization is prohibited by the gift ban from paying for a meal for a Member but the same lobbyist or lobbying organization can pay $25,000, $50,000 or more to throw an expensive party at a national convention for the same Member.''

The letter adds, ''Our organizations urge you to support a provision, similar to the provision in the Senate-passed bill, which would prohibit lobbyists and lobbying organizations from paying for parties to 'honor' Members at the national conventions.''