Major provisions of lobbying and ethics legislation passed by the House and Senate.
Gifts and Meals:
House: Does not change the current $50 limit, or $100 per year limit, for meals or gifts lobbyists can give lawmakers, but seeks an ethics committee review of the rule.
Senate: Bans senators and staff from receiving meals and gifts from lobbyists.
Travel:
House: Allows privately funded travel with approval beforehand by two-thirds of ethics committee. Lobbyists are banned from traveling with lawmakers on corporate flights.
Senate: Senators must provide ethics committee with purpose of privately funded travel before the trip and submit details of trip afterward. Lobbyists are banned from such trips.
Revolving Door:
House: No change in current one-year wait before members and staff can lobby former colleagues.
Senate: Extends the waiting period for members of Congress and senior executive branch officials to two years.
Disclosure:
House: Registered lobbyists must file quarterly reports on their activities, up from the current semiannual reports. Those reports would include campaign contributions. Fines for noncompliance are doubled to $100,000.
Senate: Similar to House.
Ethics training:
Both bills require the ethics committees to provide ethics training to staff and members.
Earmarks:
House: Requires a list of earmarks, including the sponsor’s name, for appropriations bills. Points of orders can be raised against House-Senate conference reports that do not include these lists.
Senate: The sponsor and purpose of earmarks must be identified in all bills and conference reports. Conference reports that have added earmarks subject to a point of order.
527s:
House: Limits donations to independent political groups known as 527s.
Senate: No such provision.
Grassroots lobbying:
House: No provisions:
Senate: Requires lobbyists to disclose activities in grassroots lobbying, where the public is encouraged to contact lawmakers through phone calls or television ads.
Pensions:
House: Takes away the retirement benefits of members convicted of bribery or acting as a foreign agent while in office.
Senate: No such provision.
Comments are no longer available on this story