Update: Lobbying bill passes! 

Following up on their promise to pass an ethics and lobbying reform bill before the Memorial Day recess the Democratic majority brought the bill to the floor today. Voting on amendments to the bill is still underway but there have been some developments that already buck against the growing press accounts bemoaning the slow pace of the bill's passage. Despite supposed opposition from some Democrats the Chris Van Hollen sponsored lobbyist bundling disclosure bill passed by a wide margin, 382-37. The bill was strengthened further by a Republican measure, supported by freshman Democrats, that requires PACs to disclose bundled contributions as well.

The House Rules Committee received today 48 amendments that will be offered during the debate and vote on the much-anticipated lobbying bill. There isn't too much of interest to us at Sunlight but I figured that you might want to check out all of the proposed amendments. The most controversial ones will certainly be Chris Van Hollen's bundling disclosure amendment, Chris Shays' 2-year lobbying cooling off amendment, Marty Meehan's ban on lobbyist thrown parties at national conventions, and the numerous amendments to create outside ethics enforcement bodies. Jeff Flake, notorious for his anti-earmark crusade, has also offered a raft of controversial amendments related to earmarks including an outright ban on lobbying for earmarks. I've put the whole list below the fold. Check it out:

The House Judiciary Committee just took a break from the lobbying bill markup session to go vote on the floor of the House so it seems like a good time to give a re-cap. The first action the committee took was to pass HR 2317, the lobbyist bundling disclosure bill, out of committee. There were some questions raised from Rep. John Larson (D-CT) and Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) but ultimately the bill was voted out in favor. The bill will be reported as an amendment on the floor to be added to HR 2316, the lobbying and ethics package. In regards to HR 2316 the committee passed a manager's amendment that stripped the increase in the revolving door provision from 1 to 2 years, changed the location of disclosure for Members negotiating for outside employment from the Clerk of the House to the House Ethics Committe, and stripped a provision (Conyers called it a "drafting error") that would have required 501(c)(3)s to disclose all contributions over $500.