MEDILL NEWS SERVICE > Power Trips: Congress hits the road

Democrats Pledge to Reform Ethics Rules
By CATHERINE ANDREWS and ASHLEY HERRIMAN
MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON - Ethics rules, including those regulating congressional travel, would be completely overhauled in January under a reform proposal being advanced by House Democrats.

House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi has said that the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, the Democratic plan for lobbying and ethics reform, will be the first order of business on Jan. 3 when the 110th Congress convenes under the first Democratic majority in 12 years.

"There is debate going on now about what to include and how to approach the changes," said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Pelosi, D-Calif. "But [Pelosi] is committed to a strong level of accountability. She thinks we need to break the lobbyist and lawmaker link."

The legislative package is similar to one Democrats proposed last year. Neither that proposal nor a less stringent GOP ethics bill went anywhere. The Democratic proposal, if enacted, would significantly change interactions between lobbyists and lawmakers and the relationship that has bound the two groups for more than a decade.

Currently, congressional rules prohibit lobbyists and lobbying organizations from paying for travel for members of Congress and their staffs. But private organizations and corporations, including those that retain lobbyists, can pay for transportation, lodging and food when members of Congress travel to meetings, speaking engagements or fact-finding events related to their official duties. Lobbyists employed by these groups often arrange the travel or accompany the members on their trips.

The Democratic proposal would ban all gifts, meals and travel from lobbyists and nongovernmental organizations that retain lobbyists.

"Privately sponsored travel is most often an extension of lobbying activity," said Craig Holman of Public Citizen, a government watchdog organization. "Once you get [congressmen] 35 miles outside the limits of Capitol Hill, all the restrictions on gift and travel fall by the wayside."

Under the Democrats' proposal, other long-standing travel rules also would change.

Currently, lawmakers can use corporate jets to take trips, but they only have to pay the equivalent of a first-class ticket. Often, lobbyists fly on board with the lawmakers - a practice that enables them to bend a member's ear on issues important to them.

The Democratic proposal would make members pay the full cost of corporate jet travel, raising the price to nearly 10 times its current level.

Additionally, congressmen would have to report the flights on corporate jets, along with information about who owns the plane and who accompanied them on the flight, on their trip disclosure forms.

Other proposed reforms would bar former congressmen who become registered lobbyists from approaching their former colleagues for help for a period of two years. Former members acting as lobbyists also would be denied access to the House and Senate floors.

While experts believe some ethics reform is likely, they say that members are unlikely to go so far as to completely ban privately funded travel or create an independent inspector to oversee and enforce ethics rules.

Some congressmen, including some Democrats, object to a ban on all privately sponsored trips, arguing that some trips truly are for educational purposes important to informed lawmaking.

But a number of congressional ethics experts say a ban on travel is necessary.

"If these trips were just educational, you wouldn't have the lobbyists along," Holman said. "You wouldn't have to spend money on the most luxurious accommodations and entertainment. This is special interests spending a great deal of money to influence American politics. Members of Congress and staff tend to be very heavily influenced by this kind of travel."

Others say that outright bans on travel may not be the key to eradicating ethics violations.

"I don't know how practical it is - tens of thousands of organizations employ lobbyists," said Jan Baran, a specialist in election law and government ethics. "It doesn't, in my opinion, necessarily make travel improper and private payment improper."

Critics also have charged that the ethics committees in the House and the Senate, which currently are charged with enforcing ethics rules, are toothless and have done little for oversight during their existence.

A few senators, including Barack Obama, D-Ill., are advocating the creation of an independent congressional ethics commission, but experts said that such a commission was unlikely.

"I'd be flabbergasted if that occurred," Baran said. "I don't think Congress is quite that suicidal yet."

"I think the bar has been raised," said Kenneth Gross, a Washington political lawyer. "The Democrats are going to come in there and do something more than a lip service. They have to."

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