Lobbying reform bill passes in Senate Collins’ amendment for independent office of investigation fails

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said that the lobbying reform bill that the Senate passed Wednesday by a vote of 90-8 was the most significant reform of ethics rules in a decade, but she added that the bill would have been stronger had her amendment to create an independent office to investigate ethics complaints passed on Tuesday.

The legislation that was approved would bar lawmakers from accepting gifts or meals from lobbyists or moving quickly to lobbying jobs after retiring. But members of Congress could still use corporate jets for the price of a first-class ticket and accept free lodging, travel and meals from nonlobbyists.

The amendment to create an Office of Public Integrity, proposed by Collins and Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., failed, 67-30.

“I’m disappointed,” Collins said at a press conference after the Wednesday vote. “I still think an Office of Public Integrity is a good idea, and it would have strengthened the enforcement leg of this bill and complemented the increase of penalties.”

She said her amendment failed because “members were very uneasy at having an independent entity do investigations of allegations of wrongdoing.”

Collins added that it often takes years for organizational reforms to go through.

The proposed office would have had an independent director who could conduct investigations and refer them to the Senate Ethics Committee. The proposal would have allowed investigations to be launched by a member, an outside party or the office itself. But the amendment would have allowed the Senate Ethics Committee to overrule the office by a two-thirds vote.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, who voted for the Collins amendment on Tuesday, said in a statement that while the Ethics Committee was doing its job, recent scandals have eroded the public’s trust in Congress.

“I believe the creation of an independent Office of Public Integrity [would] alleviate the genuine concern the American people have about the ability of Congress to address possible ethics violations, and I am disappointed that the Senate rejected this amendment today,” Snowe said in a statement after the vote.

The bill bans lobbyists from giving gifts or meals to lawmakers, and requires lobbyists to file quarterly electronic reports of their activities, up from the current two times a year.

Lobbyists must also disclose their contributions to officeholders and political fundraisers and their “grass-roots” lobbying activities – helping clients to encourage the general public, through mass mailings or ads, to contact federal officials.

Senators must get pre-clearance from the ethics committee before embarking on privately funded trips and, when accepting rides on corporate jets, must reveal who was on board.

Lawmakers and other senior executive branch officials must wait two years, up from the current one, before accepting jobs as lobbyists trying to influence the institution where they formerly served.

The legislation also seeks to restrain earmarks, those thousands of special projects that make their way into legislation. Former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif., went to prison this year after using the earmark process to help defense contractors who had given him bribes.

The vote came just hours after a U.S. District judge in Miami sentenced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose influence-peddling activities spawned the Senate action, to five years and 10 months in prison on conspiracy and wire fraud charges.

Lawmakers and clean government groups who saw the scandal as a golden opportunity to enact far-reaching reform expressed disappointment in the final product. The sponsors turned back efforts to ban privately funded trips or force lawmakers traveling by corporate jets to pay more expensive charter rates, rather than the first-class ticket prices they now pay.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.