Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2006

LEGISLATIVE TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2006

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Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Mississippi.

Mr. President, let me begin by expressing my admiration for the Senator from Wisconsin. He is a champion of good government. I worked very closely with him on the McCain-Feingold bill, and I think the world of him.

I know the intent of his amendment is admirable, but I do not think it is workable. It is far too sweeping, and it will lead to all sorts of problems. There are literally millions of Americans who work for LDA registrants. For example, I would imagine that nearly every employee of a Fortune 500 company fits in that category. Many of those employees have absolutely no responsibility for the lobbying activities of their companies. They probably have no idea their company, their employer, is an LDA registrant.

That is why I do not think this is workable. I think it will create all sorts of inadvertent violations of this important law. What we would be doing, as the Senator from Connecticut has pointed out, is treating rank-and-file employees as if they were registered lobbyists. That does not make sense.

The fact is, a lot of business in this country is done over lunch, an informal lunch. I have lunch occasionally with the union presidents from one of my shipyards. Is that all of a sudden going to become an offense under this proposal because the shipyard employs a lobbyist in Washington?

I think we need to think more thoroughly about the implications of this amendment. Its sweep is enormous. It brings millions of rank-and-file employees into the jurisdiction of the Lobbying Disclosure Act. I do not think that is addressing any problem.

Now, I do think it is important we strengthen this bill to make very clear that registered lobbyists cannot buy meals for Members of Congress. I support that reform. But let's have a sensible bill.

I do rise in opposition to the amendment from my good friend from Wisconsin.

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Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, first let me begin by thanking my colleague from Mississippi, the chairman of the Rules Committee, for his extraordinary leadership in bringing this bill forward. I also want to commend the ranking member of the committee, Senator Dodd. This has been an unusual and extraordinary experience where we have two committees that produced bipartisan bills with overwhelming support--only one negative vote between the two committees--and have brought legislation to the Senate floor where it was married together and presented to the full Senate. I am very proud that there has not been a single party-line vote that has occurred as we considered this bill, both in committee--in my committee, anyway--and also here on the Senate floor. I do think this is a model for how the Senate should act, that we can act together in a bipartisan way and look at how much we can get done when we do so.

So I salute Senator Lott and Senator Dodd for their extraordinary leadership. I also thank the ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, Senator Lieberman, for all that he has done to advance this very important cause. Senators MCCAIN and SANTORUM also were key figures. Senator McCain introduced one of the earliest bills. Senator Santorum brought together a bipartisan group which agreed on certain principles that became the foundation of the legislation before us. The Senate majority leader, Senator Frist, and the minority leader, Senator Reid, worked together to ensure that we would complete action on this bill. I must say, when the bill was pulled before, I was worried about whether we would return to finish the job. We have done just that, and I am proud of that activity.

This legislation is a strong bill. It may not be a perfect bill--we probably would all have different definitions of what a perfect bill would be--but it is a strong bill that I believe will help to enhance public confidence in the integrity of Government decisions. Let me describe some of the major provisions of the bill as approved and, in particular, the emphasis on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's provisions.

First of all, we greatly strengthened the disclosure required by lobbyists. The legislation requires quarterly filings rather than the present semiannual filings by lobbyists, and it ensures that the information is made available to the public on the Internet. We will have stronger, more accessible disclosure reports. This is important in terms of ensuring that there is adequate sunshine on these activities. Our goal, which would be accomplished by this bill, is to have lobbying disclosure reports on a searchable, easily accessible public database, so that the public can evaluate the spending that is occurring, and so that they know who is lobbying whom. I think disclosure is going to make a big difference, and we put some teeth in the disclosure process by doubling the maximum penalty for noncompliance to $100,000. I think that is going to provide ample incentive for prompt and full disclosure.

Another provision of the bill will provide for auditing and oversight of the lobbyists' disclosure reports by the Comptroller General, the head of the Government Accountability Office. The GAO will do some random audits, give us advice, and help us understand weaknesses in the current system.

Another important provision that really hasn't been discussed much on the Senate floor is that the legislation provides for mandatory ethics training for Members of Congress and congressional staff. I think this is important as well. I think a lot of times people aren't fully informed of what the rules are. We are going to require mandatory training for both Members and their staffs.

Another provision of the legislation addresses the so-called revolving door issue where Members of Congress and high-ranking staff leave Government for jobs focused on the institution in which they once served. We extend the cooling off period during which a former Member of Congress or a former senior executive branch official may not lobby from 1 year to 2 years. We also make an important change in the so-called revolving door provisions as they apply to senior staff. Right now the limitation is that a staff member cannot lobby the specific office for which he or she worked for a 1-year period. We retain that 1-year period--the cooling off period--but we extend it to the entire Senate or the entire body in which the staffer worked. So I think that is a significant strengthening of the revolving door provisions.

Our legislation also, for the first time, prohibits lobbyists from providing gifts and travel that Members and staff are prohibited from accepting under the ethics rules. The burden has always been on Members. We have a parallel requirement placed now, for the first time, on lobbyists, and I think that is going to make a difference as well. I am pleased that we adopted an amendment on the Senate floor to draw a bright line to make it clear that lobbyists cannot provide gifts to Members, including meals.

Another provision of our bill, this provision authored by Senator Coleman, would create a commission to look over our ethics laws and rules and to make recommendations to Congress by July 1 of this year on any further changes that would be appropriate.

Again, I think this is an excellent bill. It is an important step forward toward the goal of restoring public confidence in the decisions that we make.

Some people asked: Why does this matter? Why should we be even spending time strengthening our lobbying disclosure laws, prohibiting practices that might undermine the public's confidence in Government?

The reason this is so worthwhile and so important is that we cannot tackle the big issues facing our country if the public doesn't trust us to act in the public interests. Too often, the public is convinced that the big decisions are tainted by undue influence. Lobbying conjures up images of all-expense-paid vacations masquerading as factfinding trips, or special access that the average citizen does not have, or decisions that are tainted by improper influence.

That means the public doesn't have confidence that we will do the right thing, that we will act in the public interest rather than to meet the wishes of some special interest. That is why this matters. The experts tell us over and over again that there are so many important issues--entitlement reform, for example--that we should be tackling. But if the public doesn't trust us, if the bonds of trust between public officials and their constituents are frayed, then it is very difficult for us to make the difficult choices, for us to make the hard decisions. That is why this matters. That is why this legislation is so important. In many ways, it is the foundation that allows us to proceed to tackle the challenges facing our great Nation.

I am very pleased and proud today that we have come together. I believe this legislation will be overwhelmingly adopted by the full Senate, and that is as it should be. I am also very pleased to see the ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee has joined us on the floor. As I said earlier when he was not on the floor, he has been such a valuable partner. His commitment to good government and to repairing the public trust in government is second to none. It has been a pleasure to work with him as well as with Senator Lott and Senator Dodd as we brought forward this bipartisan endeavor.

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