Democrats Tout New Lobbying Law
Friday, September 14, 2007
Printable FormatSusan Davis reports on lobbying and ethics reform.
Wall Street Journal
Sept 14, 2007
President Bush today signed into a law a major overhaul of lobbying and ethics laws — even though he made it clear he's not entirely pleased with the bill.
While Congress approved the bill before the August recess, Democratic leaders held off sending the bill to the White House until last week to eliminate the possibility that Bush would kill it with a pocket veto by letting it sit unsigned for 10 days.
The bill was signed with little fanfare, and Bush issued a statement criticizing Democrats for what he calls inadequate disclosure laws, earmark reforms, and uniform restrictions on lobbying activities.
For Democrats, the new law is a major victory on one of their signature campaign promises to change the way Congress — and lobbyists — do business. "Last November, the American people spoke clearly for change in the way business is done in Washington," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California told reporters today on a multi-lawmaker conference call. She trumpeted the bill as the "most sweeping and toughest ethics reform in a generation." While the bill isn't as tough as Democrats initially promised, six prominent government reform groups have commended Democrats for passing legislation Republicans failed to do in their majority.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who heads the Democrats' House campaign committee, said the bill will bolster Democrats in 2008, particularly among freshman members in right-leaning districts. Van Hollen said those freshman can go home and tell constituents that "the election mattered and we followed through on the commitments that we made." While lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have grumbled for months about many of the bill's sometimes convoluted restrictions, the measure passed overwhelmingly in both chambers.
One of the most notable provisions requires lobbyists to disclose for the first time the amounts they collect from donors for candidates, a practice known as bundling. "The real measure of a lobbyist's influence is not how much he or she gives but how much they raise," Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D., Ill.) said on the conference call. He added that he supports expanding the provision to cover all donors. The new law only applies to registered lobbyists so all other big-money donors will be able to continue the practice unchecked. "We have to have full transparency," Obama said.