Tell your U.S. Representative to restore intent of 2007 Ethics bill

Public Citizen has an email your representative campaign concerning the recent U.S. House ethics committee's guidelines on convention parties. These lobbyist-paid "honor" parties for lawmakers have given undue influence on those representatives when they return to the Capitol to vote. The 2007 Ethics bill corrected this, but recently the House ethics committee ruled against the intent of this new law. If you agree, please contact your U.S. Representative and tell them to have the House use the Senate ethics committee's correct banning of these convention parties. Thank you.

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President Bush signs government ethics bill!

Campaign Legal Center - Common Cause - Democracy 21 - League of Women Voters - Public Citizen - U.S. PIRG
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Press Release, September 14, 2007, http://www.democracy21.org/ _________________________________________________________________
The following statement on the lobbying and ethics reform legislation passed by Congress was issued today by the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters, Public Citizen and U.S. PIRG:
The landmark lobbying and ethics reform legislation passed by Congress constitutes a major accomplishment by this Congress.
The far reaching reforms passed by Congress are the most important lobbying and ethics reforms since the Watergate era. They will help to change the way business is done in Washington and help to protect the interests of the American people.
Our organizations strongly commend the House and Senate for responding to deep citizen concerns about corruption and lobbying scandals revealed in the last Congress by passing landmark government integrity reforms.
Our organizations also strongly commend House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senator Russell Feingold and Senator Barack Obama and Representative Chris Van Hollen and Representative Rahm Emanuel for the outstanding national leadership they provided for this successful reform effort.
The overwhelming bipartisan vote in Congress for the reform legislation shows once again the powerful voice of citizens and the power of recorded votes when it comes to government integrity issues, with House members voting 411 to 8 and Senators voting 83 to 14 for the reform legislation.
We thank all of the Democrats and Republicans who voted for the legislation.
The immediate challenge that lies ahead now is to ensure that the new lobbying disclosure law and congressional ethics rules are effectively implemented and enforced.
Our organizations will work to achieve this goal and also are working to strengthen the systems for enforcing the congressional ethics rules, lobbying laws and campaign finance laws.
In the longer term, our organizations are working for essential campaign finance reforms that include repairing the presidential public financing system and establishing a public financing system for congressional races.
For now, however, our organizations believe it is important to recognize that this Congress has provided major lobbying and ethics reforms in response to the major corruption, lobbying and ethics scandals that were revealed in the last Congress.
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The above public interest groups are constantly on the leading edge of campaign finance reform and other government ethics concerns in Washington, D.C. With the help of citizen activists such as yourself and thousands of others across this nation, these reform groups work closely with Congress and the President to see that we, the people, are heard and that they are accountable to us only.

Check out these and other government reform groups in the list on the left panel of this blog. Constant vigilance and an optimistic outlook is all it takes to help maintain a responsible and accountable federal government.

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Travel restrictions in the Congressional ethics bill apply to the administration

A light has now shined on executive branch travel finances: Bush administration officials have been routinely accepting trips from companies and trade associations with a stake in their agencies' decisions. From April, 2006 to March, 2007, more than 100 of these trips would be out of bounds for members of Congress under the recently passed ethics bill, because they lasted more than one day and were paid for by companies or groups that employ lobbyists; the bill doesn't apply to the Executive or the Judicial branches of federal government.

The ethical question would be, of course: do the special interests paying for these trips by their regulators constitute a conflict of interest? It would seem to me that, if Company X in a resort area has polluted the river next to it, and flies Evironmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials there for free to argue their cause, that would be a conflict of interest. The EPA is the regulator, and it's financial support must come exclusively from the American taxpayer, so that a hands-off relationship with their regulatees is maintained.

The Congressional ethics bill to be given a veto or signing by President Bush should have applied to the Executive branch as well. Otherwise, executive officials not mindful of their only financial supporters may continue falling for these travel finance mistakes.

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