Lobbying Reform
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In 1995, the Congress enacted the first major lobbying law changes in 50 years.  The Lobbying Disclosure Act was designed to plug well-established gaps in the previous law:  it applied to staff as well as Members, and it provided for more uniform statements of the interests represented and the amounts spent for lobbying purposes.  A decade later, with scandals of one kind or another in the air, lobbying regulation has been restored to the reform agenda.  This space will contain regular reports on developments in this area of the law. 

A Bundle of Issues: The FEC’s Proposed Bundling Rules

     Late yesterday, as the rain fell for the third consecutive day in Washington, the FEC published its proposed bundling rules.  Congress has passed new disclosure requirements for contributions collected or raised for candidates by lobbyists. It expects rules from the FEC on unanswered questions, such as how bundling will be precisely defined. Now the FEC has sketched some of those answers and asks for comment by November 30, for airing at a public hearing to be announced later.

 

Bundling and the Regulatory System

     It has worked out this way:  Congress acted on bundling, in the new reform law, just as bundling as a fundraising practice became an issue of hot interest in the Presidential campaign.  Now the question will be presented, more quickly than usual:  will disclosure prove enough to settle the issues raised about bundling or will the problem as it  is now defined be attacked more directly?  See also Brody Mullins and Ianthe Jeanne Dugan, "Donors Stir ‘Bundling’ Questions," Wall Street Journal (Sept. 20, 2007) at A3.

 

The Press and the Campaigns: On the Subject of Bundling and Consultants

Bundlers

     The Washington Post is both happy and unhappy with the new (but not yet signed into law) bundling disclosure rules.  "Bundlers Behaving Badly," Washington Post (Sept. 4, 2007) at A16.  The rules are at once an improvement and a half-measure: better than the existing practice, which leaves it to candidates to disclose voluntarily, they are inferior to a requirement compelling the reporting of all bundled contributions, not only those of lobbyists.  

 

Reform as a Refresher Course, More Toughly Graded

     Matthew Mosk of the Washington Post ("Fundraisers Tap Those Who Can't Say No") and David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times ("Tougher Rules Change Game for Lobbyists") have each written a piece about activities, in fundraising and lobbying, that Congress has just finished reforming.  Mosk examines how bundling works, and he is interested in the networking, involving primarily social and professional pressure, that incline those "hit up" for money to surrender it.  Kirkpatrick surveys the worries now being expressed among lobbyists about their exposure to increased risk.  In each instance, their accounts underscore how the recent reforms, on many issues, don’t make new law but propose to take the rules already in place more seriously by providing for more disclosure and for higher penalties.

 

At Weekend: Angst about the Future, More Regulation in the Present

    In the last two days, postings here have considered Rick Hasen’s complaint about WRTL but, as the disagreement persists about what the Court intended and how it will affect the regulation for the future, the Congress completed work on an ethics reform package with a fresh piece of campaign finance reform included.  Reformers can be cheered:  two new regulatory pieces have been added to the puzzle, one on “bundling” and the other on the use of corporate aircraft.

 

Also...

Bundling in the House  5/25/07

"Independence" and Accountability in Ethics Enforcement  3/5/07

U.S. PIRG and Independent Congressional Ethics Enforcement  2/8/07

More Disclosure Likely With Senate Changes to Lobbyist Disclosure Act  1/24/07

A Second Look at the Ethics Rules: Planes, Tix and More  1/10/07

Preparing for New Ethics Rules: First Looks  1/4/07

Lobbying Reform and the Principle of Reciprocation  1/3/07

Reform as Entertainment  5/5/06

“Something Has Changed” as an Argument for Reform  5/3/06

Another Kind of “Sham” Lobbying Reform  4/25/06