Released: April 24, 2006

House softens lobbying measure

Source: By Jim Drinkard, USA Today

House Republican leaders have quietly scaled back their plan to limit the political influence of lobbyists, dropping proposed requirements that lobbyists disclose which lawmakers and aides they have contacted and how they have raised money for politicians.
The changes were made public in an amended bill posted on the House Rules Committee website Friday while Congress was wrapping up a two-week recess. Even before the latest move, political ethics experts had called the House plan weaker than a lobbying bill the Senate passed last month.

The legislation is to be considered this week as Congress returns to address a political influence scandal that has gripped Washington. The House bill would leave unchanged current rules that allow members of Congress and their staffs to accept gifts from lobbyists.

In addition, the measure would:
• Freeze junkets paid for by private interests, but only until after the November elections.
• Place no new restrictions on lawmakers and aides who leave Capitol Hill to become lobbyists.
• Leave enforcement of the rules in the hands of a House ethics committee that is paralyzed by partisan tensions.

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