What's New
In the week before Congress left for the August recess, the House and Senate passed OSPIRG-backed lobby reform bills. The bills ban gifts and travel paid for by lobbyists and requires members to pay their own way for the use of private jets. If signed by the President, lobbyists will no longer be able to pay for lavish parties at the national political conventions. The bills mandate the disclosure of the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars that lobbyists raise for candidates and for the first time establishes accountability for earmarks – funding for pet projects that legislators insert into bills.
For these new rules to be meaningful, Congress must have effective enforcement. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) has appointed a bipartisan task force to consider whether Congress should create an independent enforcement process similar to systems in almost half the states. The task force is chaired by Rep. Michael Capuano and is expected to report back when Congress returns in the fall.
