House Votes to Lift Veil Over Donations From Lobbyists

[Ethelk2044]

WASHINGTON, May 24 — The House voted Thursday to drag into public view the role that registered lobbyists play in soliciting and collecting contributions for political campaigns, exposing for the first time one of the most effective ways that influence-seekers ingratiate themselves with lawmakers and presidents.

The measure goes to the heart of how Washington does business by uncovering a hidden practice that sprang up as an unintended consequence of restrictions imposed by campaign finance laws. Because those laws cap individual contributions — now $2,300 per campaign — candidates have been turning to well-connected lobbyists to bundle stacks of checks to make up the millions they need to run their campaigns.


Washington lobbyists hoping for access to lawmakers have the greatest incentive to shoulder such fund-raising burdens. But previous election rules required campaigns to disclose only their individual contributors, not the intermediaries who may have bundled them.

The proposed new rule could expose the heavy reliance of many in Congress on Washington lobbyists to raise money for their campaigns.

Lobbyists are not the only bundlers. Only those who spend at least 20 percent of their time on lobbying activities and hold at least two meetings with government officials over six months are required to register as lobbyists, so many of the most influential bundlers will not be affected by the new rule.


This year, Senator Barack Obama, the Illinois Democrat and candidate for his party’s presidential nomination, has raised more campaign contributions than any other candidate even though his campaign has declined to accept contributions or bundled checks from registered federal lobbyists. (Mr. Obama does accept bundled checks from state-level lobbyists and former federal lobbyists.) Mr. Obama was the primary sponsor of the Senate legislation to require lobbyists to disclose their bundled contributions.





Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the legislation would provide “an unprecedented level of disclosure — both in quantity and quality — on the interactions between lobbyists and legislators.”

Voters would understand the importance, said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, who is chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and has been a central figure in the negotiations to win support for the bill. “The folks back home participate on Election Day, and on everything else the lobbyists have a bigger voice than they do,” Mr. Emanuel said.

Fred Wertheimer, a veteran government ethics advocate who was involved in negotiations on the measure, said that as late as Wednesday night it was unclear whether the Democratic leaders had the votes to pass the measure.

“But the behind-the-scenes opposition melted away when members were faced with recorded votes on the floor,” Mr. Wertheimer said.

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Speaker Pelosi say's a bunch.

[Selatius]

2. Yeah, let's see if they fuck it up in the Senate when the Repubs tack on loopholes and exceptions.

Just like they fucked up the minimum wage bill that was passed in the House.

[Nite Owl]

3. What did they do to the

minimum wage bill, I missed that?

I think we need someone who can actually read these bills carefully to tell us what they actually passed. I read yesterday that they were passing the workers protections for trade agreements but wording it in such a way that it would never hold up. Just another sham.

[Selatius]

4. Harry Reid had a hard time keeping Repubs from not tacking on tax cuts for special interests

As a result, the bill had to go into conference because the Senate and House version were different. The bill has been stuck ever since.