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| March 02, 2006 | |||
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| STATEMENT BY SENATOR LIEBERMAN AT MARKUP OF COLLINS-LIEBERMAN LOBBYING REFORM SUBSTITUTE | |||
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Thank you, Madam Chairman. Once again our Committee has been asked to take on a major assignment, and under your leadership, we’ve worked hard, worked together and worked quickly to produce a good and positive result to send to the full Senate. The Committee’s prompt attention to fixing our lobbying laws will be an important step toward restoring the public’s confidence in the integrity and fairness of the Congress of the United States.
I want to begin by thanking Senators McCain and Dorgan who led the investigation into Jack Abramoff. I also want to thank Senator Obama for the leadership role he has played. The scandals surrounding lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Congressman Duke Cunningham are the immediate reasons for prompt action that we are taking today and of course that action has to be bipartisan and I am confident it will be. Trust between the people and their elected leadership is at the core of our democracy. The behavior of Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Cunningham undercuts that trust and sends the message that in Washington, results go to the highest bidder, not to the greatest public good. We know that that is rarely the case, but it is in the interest of the Democratic process to respond By their guilty pleas, Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Cunningham have acknowledged their violations of the letter of the law. But Mr. Abramoff’s story also reveals activity that, while technically legal, is nonetheless clearly wrong. In government, we have a responsibility to hold ourselves, and be held to, a higher standard, which is to say, – to do not just what is legal, but what is right. As lawmakers, we uniquely now have the opportunity and responsibility to make what is clearly wrong also clearly illegal. I joined with Senator John McCain earlier this year to cosponsor the Lobbying Transparency and Accountability Act, which will be the base of our substitution bill today. I am also very proud to be co-sponsoring Chairman Collins’ mark. The Collins-Lieberman substitute contains important reforms that will require more disclosure from lobbyists and strengthen enforcement of the rules and regulations governing those lobbyists. It would establish, as the Chairman has mentioned, an independent Office of Public Integrity with a full time executive director with investigative and subpoena powers and the staff to do a lot more than is done under the status quo. It would require lobbyists to report their activities on a quarterly basis, rather than semi-annually, and establish an electronic database of the information. Our proposal for the first time would require registered lobbyists to report all their campaign contributions, as well as other contributions that honor Members of Congress, all in the interest of full disclosure. And it would increase from one year to two the amount of time that must pass before a former Member of Congress or senior executive branch official could lobby his or her former colleagues. It would also bar Congressional staff from lobbying the entire Congress for one year. The substitute Senator Collins and I offer this morning does not contain some of the provisions embodied in the McCain-Lieberman bill that would amend the rules of the Senate, pursuant to the decision Senator Collins and I have made that our Committee should not intrude into the jurisdiction of the Rules Committee, reflecting the decision of the Rules Committee not to intrude into our jurisdiction. But Senator McCain and I and others will be offering amendments to change the Senate rules on the floor next week, including one that will concern the price Senators pay when we fly on private jets. I have said before and I will say it again, we now have a once in a generation opportunity to reach agreement on a broad set of reforms that will help fix the rules governing our relations with lobbyists and restore the reputation of this institution in the eyes of the American people. Our laws and rules that govern our interaction with lobbyists need fixing. We cannot let partisanship or institutional defensiveness keep us from achieving that goal. |
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340 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510