Editorial: House dilutes ethics reform

Thursday, April 27, 2006 | 7:13 a.m.

The House is scheduled to vote on a new ethics bill today in the wake of Republican scandals involving disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

Two essential components, however, have been dropped from the bill. One would require lobbyists to disclose all contacts they have with members of Congress.

The Boston Globe reported this week on one rationale behind dropping the provision. It quoted Paul Miller, president of the American League of Lobbyists, who questioned whether lobbyists would have to fill out paperwork every time they greeted a Congress member in a hallway.

Of course, the spirit of the provision is that lobbyists report about contacts with members in which issues and bills have been discussed. Trivializing an important provision and carrying it to extremes are tactics often used by opponents. The House could have easily reworded this provision to clarify its true intent, but dropped it instead.

The other dropped provision called for lobbyists to report fundraising activities on behalf of members of Congress.

This provision would have allowed voters to understand the extent of a lobbyist's potential influence on a lawmaker.

Fundraising can include more than money for campaign chests. It can include swank parties and gifts and travel and all manner of freebies for an incumbent who knows none of it has to be reported.

Another flaw with the bill, as we see it, is that privately funded travel for members of Congress is only suspended for the rest of this year, as opposed to being banned. Such travel was at the heart of the scandals involving Abramoff.

The Senate bill is tougher, as it bans all gifts and meals from lobbyists. This is a provision, along with strict reporting, that must be included in any final bill if Congress is truly interested in ethics reform.