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Feingold snub blow to 2-year revolving door |
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By Alexander Bolton
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Posted: 06/15/07 07:45 PM [ET] |
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), the champion of a proposal to extend the cooling-off period during which former lawmakers and staff cannot lobby Congress, wants to be a part of final negations on lobbying reform — but Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has told him no.
Feingold’s absence from final negotiations lessens the chance that lawmakers will include the controversial proposal in final reform legislation. Advocates of strict reform say that the makeup of the Senate-House conference committee will do much to determine the final legislative product.
Along with Feingold, reform advocates say that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is the biggest Senate champion of strict lobbying rules. But Obama’s loaded campaign schedule makes it difficult for him to spend significant time negotiating legislation, leaving Feingold as reformers’ best hope.
Reid is expected to announce which senators will participate in negotiations with the House over lobbying reform in the next few days. But the absence of Feingold from the discussions does not bode well for the so-called “revolving-door ban.”
Feingold has been the most outspoken proponent of the reform, which ethics watchdog groups say is essential to cleaning up what Democrats have dubbed the culture of corruption in Washington. He sponsored an amendment to the reform bill that would have broadened a two-year ban to cover lobbying activities such as directing strategy for influence campaigns.
While the Senate has voted to prohibit former lawmakers from contacting their colleagues for two years, House lawmakers have balked at even that reform.
“If Feingold were in there, it would substantially enhance the chances of the revolving door provision being included [in the final bill],” said Craig Holman, an advocate for Public Citizen, a group that has pushed for strong ethics rules. “Feingold would have been fantastic to be included … and so would Obama, as long as there is one advocate of real reform included in the conference committee.”
Feingold acknowledged that he could do much to push his colleagues to strengthen restrictions on lawmakers who retire to jobs on K Street.
“It would be very helpful to be in the conference for that reason,” he said when asked about his work on the revolving-door ban. “It would be really cool to be on the conference committee … I would like to be, but it isn’t going to happen.”
But Feingold downplayed his request to Reid.
“I remember saying something to him in passing but it wasn’t a serious request,” he said. “I probably said something like, ‘Hey, why don’t you put me on the conference committee?’”
But sources familiar with the request said Feingold was entirely serious when he asked Reid to include him in the conference after the Senate passed its reform bill in January.
Reid said he did not remember telling Feingold he couldn’t be on the conference committee: “If I told him that, it was quite some while ago,” he said.
Reid said he has been “having pre-conference discussions” on the reform bill for “a while” and has talked about the bill with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). He added that he would announce conferees in the next few days.
Gary Kalman, a lobbyist for U.S. Public Interest Research Group, which is also pushing for tough ethics rules, said decisions Democratic leaders make on conferees will show their commitment to meaningful reform.
“I think that whom they put on the conference committee is going to be an indication of how serious they are about following through on the promises they made [to voters],” he said.
Kalman said that House Democrats are again raising objections to a proposal that would require lobbyists to disclose the total amount of contributions raised for lawmakers. The issue had appeared to be settled after the Senate and House passed legislation mandating that lobbyists report the bundled contributions.
Good-government groups such as Public Citizen, Common Cause, U.S. PIRG, and Democracy 21 have said the bundling and revolving-door reforms are their highest priorities.
“Having Russ Feingold on the committee would be terrific,” said Kalman. “He’s been an absolute champion.”
The participants in Senate-House negotiations are usually named from the committees that have primary jurisdiction over the legislation under consideration. In the Senate, the Rules and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees have primary jurisdiction over lobbying reform.
But often exceptions are made for lawmakers who have devoted much time and attention to legislative proposals weighed in bicameral conference.
Public Citizen’s Holman said that conference negotiating positions are given to “members of the committees of jurisdiction or people who have been intimately involved in a particular issue.”
While Feingold has been left out of final negotiations, Obama has said he is interested in participating, despite his busy political calendar.
Obama is a member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs panel.
Mary Wilson, the president of the League of Women Voters, emphasized the composition of the Senate-House conference would be crucial.
“This is a pretty important conference committee,” she said. “The makeup of that committee and [the members’] past history of looking very seriously at lobbying reforms and ethics reforms are crucial to moving this bill forward.”
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