Lobbying Transparency Act of 2007
Floor Speech
LOBBYING TRANSPARENCY ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - May 24, 2007)
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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Speaker, let me begin by congratulating the chairman of the Judiciary Committee Mr. Conyers, and the ranking member Mr. Smith, on all their work on this particular issue, and I want to thank them and the other members of the Judiciary Committee for reporting this bill out by unanimous vote, a unanimous bipartisan vote. And I also want to thank the other cosponsors of this legislation, including Mr. Meehan and others.
Madam Speaker, in the last election I think the American people sent Congress a very strong and unambiguous message, that it's time to change the way Washington does business. They said loud and clear that the status quo on Capitol Hill is unacceptable. The American people want this Congress to hold the Bush administration accountable, and they want Congress to hold itself accountable.
They grew weary of a Congress that used the power of the majority to benefit narrow special interests at the expense of the public interest, and that's why on the very opening day of this new Congress, under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi, we immediately enacted a series of important reforms, gift bans, travel limitation, and greater transparency of the earmark process.
The lobbying reform bills that are before us today are the next important steps along the path to greater openness and transparency, and I think we would all agree that with greater openness to the public comes greater accountability for this institution.
Let's be clear. Lobbyists come before this body to advocate issues on behalf of their clients, and they serve a valid and important service of providing information and expertise on complex issues that we face. However, we know a number of recent scandals have demonstrated that lobbyists, some of them like Jack Abramoff, have been able to exercise undue influence in shaping the legislative agenda and the policies that come out of the Congress.
This bill, the Lobbying Transparency Act, deals with the role of lobbyists in the campaign fund-raising process. It requires registered lobbyists to disclose certain contributions that they bundle on behalf of candidates and political committees.
This bill involves simply the disclosure of information that the public has a right to know, and a vote against this bill is a vote to deny that public important information that they can use to judge the legislative process.
I think we all agree that Members of Congress are sent here to represent the public interest. We're not here to represent narrow special interests, and we should have a very simple test, a very simple standard in considering whether we're going to vote for or against legislation, and that test is, does that legislation advance the public interest. And the answer on this bill is unequivocally yes.
Let's fulfill our promise to restore the public trust by serving the public interest. I urge adoption of this legislation.
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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague. I also urge my colleagues to vote against the motion to recommit.
During the earlier discussion, Mr. Smith talked about how the bill that we passed last year out of the Judiciary Committee was a bipartisan bill. In fact, it was a bipartisan vote in the Judiciary Committee. But what he failed to mention, and in the spirit of bipartisanship earlier I thought I wouldn't raise, was when that amendment that was attached in the Judiciary Committee got to the Rules Committee, the Rules Committee took it out. So the lobbying reform bill that the Republicans brought to the floor of the House stripped out the amendment that Mr. Smith, number one, claims bipartisanship on right now.
Number two, the measure that we have brought before us today is, in fact, broader than the amendment that the Judiciary Committee voted on last year and, in fact, captures more bundling activity. It doesn't just capture very narrow bundling activities, it is broader, and, in fact, would capture a lot more of the bundling and disclose a lot more than the bill that Mr. Smith referred to. So, in fact, it is a very important step forward in terms of the public's right to know.
Finally, the purpose of dealing with the registered lobbyists is registered lobbyists register for a reason. They are paid to try and influence legislation before Congress. They are paid to try and influence Members of Congress with respect to legislation. So the whole purpose of this is to go get at that nexus. Registered lobbyists don't register to go lobby a PAC. They don't go register to lobby the NRA PAC or to go lobby an environmental PAC or go lobby a right-to-life PAC.
So this is drawn to get at the issue that we are trying to get out in this Congress, which is to change the way we do business here and to make sure that we address the nexus between registered lobbyists and the legislative process. That is the focus. This takes us out of that focus, so I urge that we oppose this particular motion to recommit.
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