Senate Democrats fight proposal to ban relatives lobbying
Some back it only if family members are grandfathered
USA Today
January 18, 2007
WASHINGTON -- As the Senate works on sweeping new ethics rules this week, Majority Leader Harry Reid and other leading Democrats are resisting changes that strike close to home.
A proposal by Sen. David Vitter, R-La., that would ban senators' spouses from lobbying the chamber has triggered intense debate with key senators such as Reid and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., promising to oppose it if it affects senators already married to lobbyists.
Reid, D-Nev., would support the ban "as along as it's not retroactive," his spokesman Jim Manley said Wednesday. Feinstein, who oversees the committee that governs Senate rules, also backs a provision that would exempt current senator-lobbyist couples.
"No one has been able to produce a problem," related to the spousal lobbying, she said.
The bill failed to clear a legislative hurdle Wednesday when it did not get the 65 votes needed to advance it. Both Democrats and Republicans said they were negotiating to overcome the impasse.
It's hard to quantify how many members of Congress are related to lobbyists. Some prominent examples include Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., and her husband, Bob, the former Senate Republican leader who lobbies on behalf of DP World. Reid's sons and son-in-law have worked as lobbyists.
Vitter said current congressional rules, which permit relatives of senators and House members to work as lobbyists, allow special interests "to write a big check straight into the bank account of a sitting senator."
His plan would exempt spouses who had been lobbyists for at least a year before their husbands or wives were elected to the Senate.
Vitter said that if Democrats move to more broadly exempt current lobbyists and senators from his proposal, it would send a "cynical" message: "Yeah, we're going to get serious about ethics as long as it doesn't affect our friends."
The Vitter proposal is one of two Republican plans targeting lawmakers whose relatives have ties to special interests. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., wants to ban senators from inserting special projects, known as earmarks, in spending bills that financially benefit senators, their staffers or their relatives including spouses, children, stepchildren and in-laws.
"From an ethical standpoint, there's no way you should ever do an earmark that benefits you financially or someone who is close to you," Coburn said.
The GOP proposals go further than the current ethics package proposed by Senate Democrats, which would require lawmakers to publicly disclose the projects they insert in bills, now often done in secret. Ethics rules adopted by the House this month require lawmakers to disclose their special projects and declare in writing whether they or their spouses have financial stakes in the projects.
Neither House nor Senate Democrats have proposed ending lobbying by relatives.
A USA TODAY investigation in October of the ties between lobbyists and the lawmakers who make spending decisions in Congress found, in 2005 alone, $750 million in special projects pushed by lobbyists with relatives on committees that wrote the bills.
Asked about the prospects for the Republican proposals, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democratic leader, said, "I won't rule out other possibilities, but I will keep my focus on disclosure." He wants every earmark posted on the Internet 48 hours before senators vote on it.
Durbin's wife, Loretta, works as a lobbyist, but concentrates on state issues and is not registered to lobby on the federal level, he said. "She doesn't involve herself in any of the issues before Congress," he said.
Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee, and other senators said they would support Coburn's plan. Manley said Reid is reviewing the proposal to see if whether it strengthens existing Senate rules.
