House Lobbying Bill,
in Peril,
Gains Last-Minute
Rescue
By SHERYL GAY
STOLBERG, NYTimes on the Web, April 29, 2006
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Mark Wilson/Getty Images
House
leaders including John A. Boehner won some time Thursday on a
lobbying bill. |
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WASHINGTON, Apr. 27 — A
Republican-backed lobbying bill nearly collapsed in the House on Thursday, but
its prospects were revived when the Republican leadership cut a deal with
recalcitrant members of the Appropriations Committee who had been threatening to
keep it from coming up for a vote.
After a roller-coaster day of closed-door meetings and negotiations, and a
noontime decision by Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois to pull the bill from
the floor moments after debate began, the appropriators threw their support
behind the measure. The House then voted 216 to 207 to begin consideration
of the bill, which is now expected to come to the floor next week.
"It was a good vote for us," Mr. Hastert said afterward, seeming relieved.
"Members came together, and we intend to move forward."
The vote was a welcome reprieve for the Republican leadership, which has
struggled to right itself ever since last fall, when Representative Tom DeLay of
Texas was forced to step aside as majority leader, having been indicted in his
home state on charges related to campaign finance. The leadership has made
passing lobbying law changes a high priority in the wake of the Jack Abramoff
scandal.
But the appropriators, who write spending bills, have lately been challenging
the leaders' authority. Their objections to the House budget contributed
to the collapse of that measure earlier this month, and on Thursday, as they
threatened to withhold support from the lobbying legislation, some rank-and-file
Republicans wondered who was in charge.
"This is a test of who's running the show," said Representative Jeff Flake of
Arizona.
Later, after the appropriators had relented, Mr. Flake said, "It means the
leadership is still the leadership, and that's the good news."
The deal that saved the bill involved a provision requiring appropriators to
list publicly the pet projects, or earmarks, in spending bills, along with the
lawmakers who request them. Appropriators wanted that provision extended
to earmarks in all types of legislation, including tax and policy measures, and
the leadership promised that the bill would not emerge from a House-Senate
conference unless it did just that.
The outcome was an important victory for fiscal conservatives like Mr. Flake,
since earmarks, which have gained scrutiny because lawmakers sometimes use them
to dole out favors to lobbyists, can significantly drive up the cost of the
legislation to which they are attached.
Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, chairman of the conservative House
Republican Study Committee, said, "After months of scandal and years of deficit
spending, we have come to a moment of truth." Mr. Pence said Congress must
change the way it spends taxpayers' money, and added, "You can't complain about
the sharks when you are holding a bucket of chum."
Despite the seeming show of unity, the lobbying bill continues to engender deep
divisions among Republicans, and the new majority leader, Representative John A.
Boehner of Ohio, said passage would require more work. The bill is
considered weaker than its counterpart passed by the Senate, and its critics say
it does not go nearly far enough to break the close bonds between lawmakers and
lobbyists that were spotlighted by the Abramoff scandal.
The measure would make the work of lobbyists more transparent, by requiring them
to disclose campaign contributions and personal gifts to lawmakers, but it would
not ban corporate travel and does not address the so-called "revolving door" in
which legislators and aides leave Capitol Hill for K Street, the lobbyists'
corridor.
"It's a pathetic bill," said one Republican opponent, Representative Christopher
Shays of Connecticut.
Thursday's vote was almost entirely along party lines. Democrats voted
unanimously against bringing the measure up for consideration and were joined by
12 Republicans, mostly those like Mr. Shays who viewed it as inadequate.
The Democratic leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, derided the
bill as "a pathetic tiny little step that is a missed opportunity for a high
ethical standard" in the House.
But the chief Republican architect of the bill, Representative David Dreier of
California, said critics were focusing too much on what the bill left out, and
not enough on what it included.
"Does it increase transparency, does it increase accountability, does it put
more information in the hands of the American people?" Mr. Dreier said.
"I'm absolutely confident that the answer to every single one of those questions
is a resounding yes."
The turning point, though, was the deal between the leadership and the nearly
three dozen Republicans on the Appropriations Committee, led by their
strong-willed chairman, Representative Jerry Lewis of California. Their
decision to support the measure came so late that the House Republican whip,
Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, said the leadership had not known until
just before the vote how the day's events would turn out.
"I was never less certain five minutes before we started a vote," Mr. Blunt
said.
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