Senate OK's new rules on lobbyists

WASHINGTON -- The Senate overwhelmingly approved long-stalled legislation to tighten internal ethics rules and to impose new restrictions on lobbyists yesterday, including a ban on lawmakers accepting gifts and meals from registered lobbyists.

But the measure stops short of the strongest steps that independent observers say Congress needs to effectively crack down on the types of abuses exposed by the embarrassing public corruption scandal surrounding disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was sentenced to 70 months in prison yesterday, and the million-dollar bribery conviction of Randy ''Duke" Cunningham, a former GOP representative from California.

The fact that the Senate bill didn't go further, critics say, suggests the early momentum for sweeping changes in how Congress and lobbyists interact gradually vanished, leaving intact many of the institutional problems that led to the scandals.

The bill allows lawmakers to take flights on private corporate jets and accept free trips paid for by interest groups, though the Senate Ethics Committee would have to approve such excursions in advance. Senators also decisively rejected a proposal for an independent agency to investigate allegations of ethics violations, a move that lets lawmakers continue to police themselves.

''Given that Mr. Abramoff got five years in the pokey today, the notion that this is the best we can do I think doesn't make sense," said Senator Barack Obama, an Illinois Democrat who led his party's negotiations on overhauling lobbying and ethics rules but voted against the final bill. ''It doesn't address enforcement. It doesn't address travel abuses."

''It's very weak," added Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican who also worked to craft a tougher bill and voted no. He wanted the measure to crack down on the practice of ''earmarking" -- where lawmakers can insert special projects at the request of lobbyists -- and said an independent Office of Public Integrity is crucial to any meaningful overhaul.

Before the Senate bill becomes law, the House of Representatives has to pass it and President Bush must sign it. But if the bill stalls in the House, the Senate can take the same steps in the bill by making changes to Senate rules.

The Senate bill requires lobbyists to file quarterly reports of their activities instead of twice a year, and those reports would be posted on an accessible Internet database. The measure would also force former lawmakers to wait two years after leaving office -- double the current period -- before they can become lobbyists, and it ends secret ''holds" senators now use to anonymously stop bills or nominations.

The bill passed, 90 to 8, with five Republicans and three Democrats voting no. Massachusetts' senators came down on opposite sides: John F. Kerry voted no, and Edward M. Kennedy voted yes.

Despite stinging critiques from the bill's opponents, most senators from both parties declared victory, insisting that the Senate has answered the public's call for more transparency and accountability in the legislative process.

''We have gotten something done," said the Senate minority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada. ''This bill is not perfect. But it is significant improvement over current law and will help restore confidence in government."

Yet foes of the bill spoke out.

''It's a sorry statement about how broken Washington is that we could not take advantage of this unique and sad moment in history and enact serious lobbying reform," Kerry said in a prepared statement after the vote, referring to the Abramoff and Cunningham scandals. ''We owed it to the people who sent us to Washington to root out corruption, and the Senate turned its back on a golden opportunity." Kennedy's office did not offer a comment.

The Senate action occurred hours after a federal judge sentenced Abramoff to prison for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud in connection with the purchase of a Florida gambling boat company. Those charges are not directly related to Abramoff's guilty pleas on charges of conspiracy to corrupt public officials on Capitol Hill, federal tax evasion, and mail fraud -- criminal charges for which the once-powerful lobbyist faces as many as 30 years in prison.

It was that scandal -- which uncovered a vast web of corruption surrounding Abramoff, several members of Congress, and a range of former congressional aides -- that shot overhauling ethics and lobbying rules to the top of the legislative agenda in Washington early this year.

That sense of urgency faded, however, as lawmakers grappled with the details of the legislation and became sidetracked on other matters, such as the Dubai ports deal and overhauling immigration. Yesterday's Senate vote broke that logjam, albeit with a bill that was significantly watered down from the type of legislation that House and Senate leaders once promised.

''To the credit of my colleagues here, Democrats and Republicans, the United States Senate has acted -- not in haste, but in a measured response to this scandal," said Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee. ''There's a sign now up in front of the Capitol that says, 'Not for sale.' "

The bill now moves to the House, where the ethics overhaul has had a slower start. Many House Republicans want to tackle lobbying and ethics legislation at the same time that they try to regulate so-called 527 independent special-interest groups, which have no limits on funding and spending -- introducing another politically explosive issue into the debate.

The Senate measure includes minor changes that would force senators who insert ''earmark" projects into spending bills to make that public at least 24 hours before the bill is considered. But some denounced the measure as weak; it includes a loophole in which no disclosure is necessary for money to be spent by federal agencies, which some specialists estimate represent 40 percent of all earmarks.

Still, some senators said they would continue to fight for more earmark changes.

''We got our foot in the door here at reform on earmarks, and we'll come back and try it more fully on some other vehicle," said Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut.