New ethics enforcement mechanism for Congress

Many congressional observers thought that the flurry of investigations, convictions and negative press surrounding the scandal involving super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff had finally created the perfect storm to prompt Congress to pass real reform. After all, a recent Gallup Poll found that a whopping 85 percent of Americans see congressional corruption as a serious problem.

But despite all the talk about cleaning up Washington, the lobbying reform bills that emerged from the House and the Senate are nothing but smoke and mirrors, finessing the issue with phony solutions. All these bills do is offer the opportunity to call a press conference and announce the problem solved. Sadly, it looks like once the House and Senate iron out the comparatively minor differences between these two weak bills, it will be business as usual on Capitol Hill.

But it didn’t have to be this way. Senators could have voted to create an Office of Public Integrity, as was proposed by Sen. Susan Collins who chairs the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. She and Joe Lieberman, the ranking Committee Democrat, proposed the creation of this more independent office to investigate allegations of congressional wrongdoing.

Joining them in support of this proposal were Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Barak Obama, D-Ill. Of course, this proposal did not make Sen. Collins popular with many of her other colleagues in Washington, and it failed to garner anywhere near the 51 votes needed to pass. But the Collins-Lieberman proposal was widely praised by reformers as the essential step in changing the ethics atmosphere in Washington.

On the House side, representatives were denied a chance to even consider the new Office of Public Integrity when the Republican leadership blocked any bipartisan amendments from even being discussed on the House floor.

Of course, without amendments, the House bill had no hope of actually bringing about any real reform of today’s “check book legislating” on Capitol Hill, where the highest bidder gets to call the tune. Isn’t it ironic that a bill about more transparency and openness in government was never allowed by House leadership to even see the light of day?

A vote on whatever final “lobbying reform” bill cobbled together from the hollow House and Senate bills is expected in the next few weeks. No doubt, Congress feels compelled to make at least a token gesture to appease an unhappy public. But if there is any hope for real reform to the current lobbying and ethics system, it will not be through these sham bills.

The truth is Congress needs to start over, which is admittedly unlikely when the ringleaders are no doubt polishing their “mission accomplished” speeches. And given the current dynamic, it will clearly take a sustained effort by Sen. Collins and the other independent-minded reformers to push through a new ethics enforcement mechanism in Congress.

The representatives and senators who lent support to the hollow and cynical efforts that passed the House and Senate did so simply to neutralize a possible campaign issue this fall. They’ll run ads saying they passed tough reforms and cleaned up Washington. But “we the people” won’t be fooled. That’s all these so-called “lobbying reform” measures are – political cover for the election season.

Meredith McGehee is the policy director of the Campaign Legal Center.