Republicans Propose Broad Ethics Plan

WASHINGTON – Republican leaders yesterday proposed broad new restrictions on lobbying Congress, including a ban on privately funded travel for members, tight restrictions on meals and other gifts financed by lobbyists, and ending access to the House and Senate floors and congressional gyms for former lawmakers who register as lobbyists.The House and Senate proposals are the latest Republican effort to try to respond to a growing bribery and corruption scandal spawned by the activities of a GOP lobbyist, Jack Abramoff. Many of the proposals tackle practices so prevalent that they hardly raise an eyebrow, such as the trips to Jamaica and Hawaii that House members from both parties embarked on just last week.Indeed, measures that would have had little chance of enactment a year ago are on the fast-track to passage. House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, a Republican of California, said the House will vote to ban former members’ congressional access on February 1, the first day of the House session. The broader package of rules changes should be ready for a full House vote by mid-March.“We need to reform the rules so that it is clear, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what is ethically acceptable,” said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, a Republican of Illinois.Senate Republican Conference Chairman Santorum of Pennsylvania and Senator McCain, a Republican of Arizona, met with reporters to discuss a far-ranging plan they are putting together for action in February or March.But Republicans are far from unified on how to proceed, with some even defending lobbyist-financed travel. Some lawmakers say GOP leaders are blaming lobbyists rather than examining the legislative processes that have invited corruption, such as the proliferation of home-district pork barrel projects that have become prime ways to reward campaign supporters.“Many trips are truly educational, and I believe a complete ban on all private travel would be an overreaction that doesn’t get to the root of the problem,” said Rep. John Shadegg, a Republican of Arizona,one of three candidates to succeed Rep. Tom DeLay, a Republican of Texas, as House majority leader.And Democrats yesterday stayed on the attack, hoping to prevent Republicans from distancing themselves from the burgeoning corruption scandal that forced DeLay to relinquish his majority leader post and over the weekend forced Rep. Bob Ney, a Republican of Ohio, to temporarily step down as chairman of the House Administration Committee.“For more than a decade, Speaker Hastert and House Republicans have benefited from their systemic culture of corruption at the expense of the American people,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat of California, who was to unveil proposals today that match and in some ways exceed the Republican proposals, said. “Today, the Republicans so-called lobbying reform proposal sticks a Band-Aid on a gaping wound.”Senate Democrats sent a letter to President Bush insisting that he make public any contacts disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff had with the administration. “The American people need to be assured that the White House is not for sale,”they wrote.White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Abramoff attended two Hanukkah receptions during Mr. Bush’s first term and had “a few” meetings with presidential aides, but he refused to identify who, when or why. “We are not going to engage in a fishing expedition,” Mr. McClellan said.Between proposals emerging in the House and Senate, even the harshest critics of congressional ethics say meaningful changes could be coming. The complete ban on privately funded travel, endorsed now by Republican and Democratic leaders in both chambers of Congress, goes well beyond changes initially expected, said Fred Wertheimer, president of the congressional watchdog group Democracy 21.For instance, a lobbyist-funded trip to Scotland, ostensibly for educational purposes, might be banned under new lobbyist rules. But if those rules do not change fund-raising guidelines, the same trip could be privately financed as long as it is characterized as a campaign event and includes the exchange of a campaign check.Mr. McCain said yesterday he is aware of that loophole: “We will fix that,” he pledged.Neither the House nor the Senate proposals have been written, but Republican lawmakers from both bodies laid out their principles yesterday. Lawmakers could not accept travel from organizations staffed by or funded by lobbyists. Mr. Dreier said the House will pattern gift restrictions on those that now govern the White House. Lawmakers would be unable to accept any meal or other gift worth more than $20 at a time,and could take gifts worth no more than $50 a year over the course of a year.Democrats today will propose a total ban.

Republicans Propose Broad Ethics Plan

Republicans Propose Broad Ethics Plan

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