Congress Approves Ethics Overhaul

by Aaron Sadler, The Morning News: Lawmakers last week overwhelmingly approved broad ethics and lobbying rules crafted in response to corruption scandals that beset Congress a year ago. The Senate voted 83-14 and the House 411-8 . . . The ethics bill bans lawmakers from accepting gifts from lobbyists or their clients and forces elected officials and presidential candidates to pay the full charter rate for trips on noncommercial planes. It sets new guidelines for public disclosure of individual projects, or earmarks, 48 hours before a vote. Earmark sponsors would be required to declare they have no financial stake in the project.Opponents said the bill didn't go far enough toward providing full earmark disclosure. . . . the bill prohibits senators from taking lobbying jobs until two years after they leave office. The window for House members would be one year.It would also require lawmakers to name lobbyists who raise more than $15,000 for them from different sources over a six-month period. [Read More] [Note: The entire Arkansas voted for the reform bill: Sens. Blanche Lincoln & Mark Pryor & Reps. Marion Berry, John Boozman, Mike Ross and Vic Snyder ] See Also: Draining the 'Swamp' Is Not So Easy: Skeptics Question Bite of Ethics Rules

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Tags: earmark reform, earmarks, Ethics, ethics reform, gifts, lobby reform, lobbying, lobbyist, US Congress To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!