Jul 17, 2007 -- Reform Groups Oppose Proposal Reportedly Being Considered that Would Gut Core Provisions in Lobbying Disclosure Legislation

In a letter sent today, reform groups strongly urged Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to oppose a proposal reportedly being considered that ''would gut the core disclosure provisions of the House and Senate-passed lobbying disclosure bills, and would fundamentally undermine the central purpose of the lobbying reform legislation.''

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

According to the letter from the reform groups, ''There have been reports that a proposal is being considered to drop in conference the provisions in the lobbying disclosure reform bills that require lobbying organizations and lobbyists to disclose the contributions they give to, and provide or bundle for, members of Congress and other candidates, leadership PACs and party committees.''

The letter states, ''Instead, this information about the campaign finance activities of lobbying organizations and lobbyists would be disclosed only by Members and other candidates, leadership PACs and party committees in the campaign finance reports they file with the Federal Election Commission.''

''Our organizations adamantly oppose this reported approach,'' the letter stated.

According to the letter, ''The House and Senate-passed lobbying disclosure reform bills provide the public with effective access to a complete picture in one place of the various ways in which lobbying organizations and lobbyists provide campaign money and other financial assistance to members of Congress and others.''

The letter states, ''Removing the campaign finance information from the reports filed by a lobbying organization or lobbyist, and requiring that information instead to be found in the thousands of campaign finance reports filed by candidates, leadership PACs and party committees would disperse and bury this critical information.''

The letter continues ''This approach would eliminate the user-friendly access to campaign finance information about lobbying organizations and lobbyists provided in the House and Senate-passed bills and would deny citizens and the media meaningful access to this information.''

According to the letter, ''The House and Senate-passed lobbying disclosure bills have virtually identical provisions that require lobbying organizations and lobbyists to disclose on their quarterly disclosure reports the contributions they make to members of Congress and others. There is no justification for eliminating these virtually identical provisions from the final conference legislation.''

The letter states, ''Similarly, both bills require lobbying organizations and lobbyists to disclose on their quarterly reports the contributions they bundle, and the contributions they raise at fundraising events they host, for members of Congress and other candidates, their leadership PACs and political party committees. (The Senate bill has a separate explicit disclosure requirement for lobbyist-hosted fundraising events; the House bill incorporates this disclosure requirement in its disclosure provision for bundled contributions).''

The letter continues, ''The House and Senate passed-bills, furthermore, also require lobbying organizations and lobbyists to disclose on their quarterly reports information about the multiple other ways in which they provide financial assistance to members of Congress, such as by making contributions to foundations controlled by Members, paying for events to honor Members and paying for conferences and retreats held by Members.''

According to the letter, ''Under both the House and Senate bills, all of this information about money provided by lobbying organizations and lobbyists to assist members of Congress is easily available to the public and the media in one place by going to the quarterly lobbying reports filed by the lobbying organizations and lobbyists.''

The letter continues, ''Under the proposal reportedly being considered, this effective approach for making available to the public all of the information about the money being provided by a lobbying organization and a lobbyist to assist Members would be replaced by a complicated, time-consuming and ineffectual approach that is in fundamental conflict with the goals and purposes of the lobbying disclosure reforms.''

The letter states, ''Our organizations strongly urge you to reject any proposal to remove the requirement in the lobbying disclosure bills for lobbying organizations and lobbyists to disclose their campaign finance activities on their quarterly lobbying reports.''

The letter concludes, ''We also strongly urge you to include in the final conference report an effective bundling disclosure provision and the explicit requirement for lobbyists to disclose the fundraising events they host for Members contained in the Senate-passed bill.''

To read the full letter, click here.