Earmark Reform |
Gift Ban |
Revolving Door |
Pay Raise |
Senate Vacancies Amendment
Issues
Government Reform
Since joining the Senate, I have made cleaning up Washington one of my top priorities. In July 2005, I introduced a comprehensive ethics and lobbying reform bill in the Senate. Later that same year, in December 2005, the indictment of Jack Abramoff put the issue of reform on the front burner in Congress. Joined by then-Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), Senator John McCain (R-AZ), and others, I pushed for tough legislation to seriously change the way Washington works.
In November 2006, fed up with lobbying scandals and Congress's failure to take action, the American people voted for change. When a new Congress took office in 2007, I continued pushing for real lobbying and ethics reform that holds elected officials to the highest ethical standards. Senator Obama and I introduced a bill containing far-reaching reforms in January of that year based on my 2005 proposal.
In the summer of 2007, Congress finally enacted the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act (HLOGA). I played a major role in crafting this bill, which contains many provisions from my previous proposals.
The bill curbs lobbyists' gifts and privately funded travel, slows the revolving door between Congress and lobbying groups, improves lobbying disclosure, prohibits elaborate parties for members of Congress at party conventions, and does away with secret holds used by senators to block legislation anonymously.
The bill has been called "a major accomplishment" and its reforms were hailed as "the most important lobbying and ethics reforms since the Watergate era" by a non-partisan coalition of watchdog groups including Democracy 21, Common Cause, the Campaign Legal Center, League of Women Voters, Public Citizen and U.S. PIRG.
The enactment of HLOGA was a historic step toward ensuring Congress is working to advance the interests of the American people, not those of well-connected lobbyists in Washington.
Get more information on the legislation I introduced from
this fact
sheet. |
