A majority of Senators cast votes last night to pass increased disclosure rules without any new enforcement.
“It’s an attempt at credit without accountability,” said U.S. PIRG’s democracy Advocate Gary Kalman. “They cannot face voters back home having done nothing to address the largest congressional scandal in recent memory so they agree to new rules while balking at the one measure that would ensure those rules were meaningful.”
Senators McCain, Collins Lieberman and Obama deserve praise for their amendment to create an independent and nonpartisan Office of Public Integrity to receive complaints and conduct investigations. Neither the Senate or House Ethics committees have given the public any reason to trust that they can deal with the current scandals in the partisan charged atmosphere of Congress. The Senate Ethics Committee has issued only one public statement on the matter – that the will let the Department of Justice look into violations of law, but the Committee will do nothing to investigate colleagues who may have broken Senate rules.
“The amendment to create an Office of Public Integrity was the single most important and most appropriate response to the convictions of Jack Abramoff and former Representative Duke Cunningham,” noted Kalman. “Mr. Abramoff’s crimes were not disclosed by a working ethics enforcement system, but by a disgruntled colleague and an aggressive press. It’s not an endorsement of a successful process, but an indictment of a broken system.”
Additional votes on amendments to the Senate’s lobby reform bill will occur today, including one by Senator Bennett (UT) to strip a provision on disclosing large grassroots lobbying campaigns. Some estimates now suggest that more money is spent on paid advertising and other grassroots measures than is spent on traditional lobbying. “Grassroots mobilization is critically important in our democracy, but the public has a right to know who is behind the ad campaigns and phonecalls,” added Kalman. “The amendment gives Senators one more chance to weaken an already diluted bill.”
U.S. PIRG is the national advocacy office for the state Public Interest Research Groups. State PIRGs are non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organizations.
