Late last night the Senate Republicans blocked action on the bipartisan ethics legislation that they had been debating since the opening of the 110th Congress. Republicans blocked the measure because Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Democrats refused to vote on an unrelated amendment that would give the President line-item veto authority, a transfer of power that was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court back in 1998. (See these CRS Reports on Line-Item Veto: 1, 2.) Sen. Reid had already stated that amendments that were nongermane to ethics and lobbying reform, including amendments related to campaign finance issues, would not be addressed during this debate. Reid even told Sen. Judd Gregg, the proponent of the line-item veto amendment, that the Senate would debate the issue separately in the future.
Continue readingDurbin Amendment Passes
Did anybody vote against this thing? I don’t think so. The Durbin amendment, a compromise amendment between Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) over earmarking, passed unanimously just now. The earmark reform in the Senate is now equivalent to that passed in the House plus it will require a list of earmarks included in a given bill to be put online 48 hours prior to a vote. Even Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.) voted for it, and if you read Bill’s post below that should come as a shock. Final vote tally to strengthen earmark disclosure: 98-0.
Continue readingThe Sunlight-Berkman Conference on Political Information was a success
Yesterday the Sunlight Foundation and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society hosted the Sunlight-Berkman Conference on Political Information. Our new intern Andrew MacRae attended the Conference in Boston and wrote up this review of the day:
On January 15th, 2007, the Sunlight Foundation in cooperation with Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society held an all day workgroup entitled “Local Political Information in an Internet Era”. The session brought together bloggers and organizations, in an attempt to share data, goals and thoughts. For addition coverage see what other participants had to say, Ethan Zuckerman, Jake Shapiro, John Palfrey, Dan Gillmor, David Weinberger and more.
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Senate Continues Debate As Lobbyists Cry Foul
The Senate resumed their debate over ethics and lobbying reforms at about 1 pm today. The Durbin replacement amendment for the DeMint amendment, which caused a stir last week, is likely to be one of the first orders of business. Also on tap is the subject of private travel which is addressed in this McClatchy article. Meanwhile lobbyists have already begun to cry foul. Gosh, they have to eat lunch with other lobbyists instead of lawmakers! You can follow the debate at C-Span and review the bill at GovTrack.
Continue readingReid/DeMint Compromise Keeps Online Disclosure
The compromise on Sen. Jim DeMint's earmark reform amendment has been released and it appears that the online disclosure section of Sen. Reid's proposal will survive along with the stronger aspects of DeMint's amendment. According to CongressDaily, the Senate will vote on DeMint's amendment (SA 11) on Tuesday and then vote on a secondary amendment proposed by Reid that would do the following:
Reid said his changes include a tighter definition of a targeted "tax benefit" to help a limited group. "This is a flexible and more realistic standard," said Majority Whip Durbin. Reid's amendment would also require 48-hour notice on the Internet and aims to prevent lawmakers such as imprisoned former Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham, R-Calif., from thwarting disclosure rules.
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Drama in Senate over Earmark Reform
Update: TPM Muckraker has details on the face-saving. Reid has bowed to accept the earmark reform.
The Senate Democrats fought yesterday to hold their slim majority together to fight earmark reforms proposed by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nevada), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) attempted to kill the DeMint amendment (SA 11), which sought to adopt the same earmark reforms the House adopted last week. When Reid pushed a motion to table the amendment ten Democrats voted against their Leader to not table the bill. The whole episode has become a major embarrassment for Reid and it is now rumored that Reid is making a compromise with DeMint to save face.
Continue readingSenate Agrees to Amendment on Committee Transparency
Yesterday during the debate on the Senate ethics legislation Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Co.), along with cosponsor Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), introduced an amendment to require that each Senate committee and subcommittee post to their website “a video recording, audio recording, or transcript of any meeting not later than 14 business days after the meeting occurs.” Salazar’s amendment (SA 15), which modifies Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nevada) substitute amendment SA 3, was agreed to by a voice vote yesterday.
Continue readingFinding Bills Online
It would be nice to know why the Government Printing Office takes so long to take a bill and put it online so that I can access it on Thomas. Yesterday, I tried to read the lobbying and ethics reform bill currently being debated on the Senate floor, bill number S. 1, and found that it was not online at Thomas because it takes a day or two for the GPO to print a bill. Of course, S. 1 was introduced last week but the GPO says that it might take longer when a lot of bills are introduced at once (members of the House introduced over 300 bills last week, Senators introduced over 100). Is there some actual explanation for this delay other than aimless bureaucracy and backwards computer technology. If I had just drafted a bill I could post the entire thing on this blog right now, but for some reason Members of Congress cannot post bills immediately online?
Continue readingJumping Through Loopholes
The House is on the verge of voting to pass a new set of ethics and lobbying reforms and already the lobbying community has found a loophole to jump through:
Lobbyists and their clients would continue to fete lawmakers at restaurants, sporting events and faraway resorts as long as those events are part of campaign fundraisers. Campaign finance laws, which are distinct from House rules, permit outsiders to provide all manner of benefits to lawmakers as long as those benefits are accompanied by checks written to the lawmakers' reelection coffers.
"We would be able to take people out to lunch, but only if we give them a check while we do it," said Paul A. Miller, immediate past president of the American League of Lobbyists. "That looks more corrupting than what we have under the current system."
(Hat tip: Mike Crowley at TNR)
Continue readingNew Congress, Same Headache
On day one of the new Democratic Congress staffers are already finding that an old problem is giving them new headaches. Already Rep. William Jefferson - under investigation for accepting bribes and hiding $90,000 in cash in his freezer - has violated House rules by using his Congressional stationary to send a letter "asking colleagues to donate money to help him retire his campaign debt." Roll Call notes, "It’s a no-no to use taxpayer resources to raise campaign dough." One staffer jokes, "He’s got $90,000 in his freezer, why can’t he buy some stationery and stamps?" Jefferson's staff say it's a "tremendous staff error". But, hey, New Orleans you guys voted for him! (Subscription free at Political Insider.)
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