YARD STICK FOR REFORM—Congress could tackle reform in the early months of the 110th session. We’re working to make sure it’s strong legislation. Photo: AP Photos

“The Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history.”
—Rep. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), on Election Night

Let’s hope so.

After a year in which scandals sent two members of Congress and two lobbyists to jail, forced three more members to resign from office, placed nine more members under federal investigation, and contributed to the defeat of perhaps a dozen or two more, voters made it clear they’re ready for a real change in the way their elected officials do business in Washington, D.C.

It’s not just Congress. State-level officials have prompted reform in North Carolina, Illinois and many other states.

But as bills that would rewrite the rules on lobbying and ethical standards in Congress make their way through the House and Senate, how can we make sure that Congress is really addressing these scandals?

We’ve proposed a set of changes that we believe could truly produce long-lasting reform. Before we outline these changes, though, let’s recap the scandals that forced this issue to the top of the congressional agenda.

Pattern Of Corruption
• Lobbyist Jack Abramoff has already been sentenced to nearly six years in jail and he may face more time in prison if he fails to cooperate with the more than 100 FBI agents investigating his role in influence-peddling on Capitol Hill. (As a college student in Mass., Abramoff spent considerable time and energy attacking college PIRG chapters.)

• In September, Rep. Bob Ney (Ohio) pleaded guilty to corruption charges. Ney had joined Abramoff on his notorious Scotland golf outing and accepted money in return for helping Abramoff’s clients.

• Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (Calif.) is now Inmate 94405-198 at the federal correction center in San Diego, where he is serving an eight-year term for accepting more than $2.4 million in bribes.

• Rep. William Jefferson (La.) is being investigated for bribery. Agents found $90,000 divided among various food containers in his freezer. At press time, Jefferson faced a run-off election in December.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. More indictments could be handed down as the officials and lobbyists facing jail time begin to share information with federal investigators.

The arrogance and utter lack of respect for the public trust are appalling in all of these cases. Researchers have found that the cost of this corruption extends beyond the damage done to public confidence in government, however.

The costs are real expenditures of taxpayer dollars that could be going to beneficial services. Instead, lobbyists are using gifts and junkets to divert funds toward pet projects, pork-barrel spending and other misuses: all under the guise of earmarks.

In the past decade, lawmakers have been expanding the scope and number of earmarks, which is a way of setting aside money for a specific project. The amount of earmarks increased from $30 billion to $47 billion. Not so coincidentally, the number of lobbyists tripled over the same time period.

What’s so bad about an earmark? Instead of contracts going to the lowest bidder, the best value or the most deserving party, taxpayer dollars flow to those with friends in high places. Think of the
2005 “Bridge to Nowhere” plan, a $315 million project to connect Ketchikan, Alaska (pop. 8,000) to nearby Gravina Island (pop. 50). The voters had a clear response to the scandals this past November:

Enough!

COST OF CORRUPTION—Gifts of travel, like the chartered jet and all-expense-paid golf outing to Scotland that Jack Abramoff arranged for Bob Ney and his aides (above), influence lawmakers to divert money away from much-needed programs.

A Yardstick For Reform
As a new Congress brings reform up for debate again, how should citizens tell real reform from more bills that do nothing to address corruption?

We believe strong ethics and lobbying reform achieves three main objectives in order to crack down on
and prevent more corruption:

• Enforce the rules: Jack Abramoff’s undoing was initiated by a whistle blower—not by the House or Senate Ethics Committees. Congress needs an independent, professionally staffed ethics commission.

The commission should be selected by a bipartisan task force. The group should have audit and investigative powers. When they find out about ethical missteps, they should be able to quickly alert the public and punish offenders.

The group’s independence should be protected by rules restricting partisan involvement before and after service, terms by which members can (and cannot) be fired, and protections against partisan attacks on the group’s enforcement budget.

• Limit gifts, travel and meals from powerful special interests: Gifts of travel and meals buy special access and lead to cozy relationships with powerful special interests. That’s access that the average American just can’t afford.

Instead of vaguely worded and easily avoided rules, we need tough, common-sense restrictions on gifts. Gifts of travel should be prohibited if they are funded by lobbyists, paid for by firms that employ lobbyists, or if lobbyists also attend. While a plaque or commemorative award shouldn’t rise to the level of influence-peddling, all-expense paid golf junkets to Scotland certainly should. And they should be banned.

• Protect voters’ right-to-know: Require Congress to open the books so that voters can follow the money. New rules should require full disclosure of all campaign contributions.

Right now, if you want to figure out how much money your representative receives from powerful interests, you’d need to spend days poring over misleading organization names and titles.

The new rules should require a searchable, online database that labels all contributions from registered lobbyists, and what interest each lobbyist represents.

Change On The Horizon?
As part of a coalition of groups including Common Cause, Public Campaign Action Fund and Public Citizen, we asked candidates for Congress to show their support for our platform by signing on to the Voters First pledge: 360 agreed, including 109 who were elected.

Following the election, we’ve been meeting with more members to build on this base of support.

We know that when the voters send a message to our elected officials, change is possible.

Last year, North Carolina passed a reform bill that established an independent commission to investigate misconduct—and it was because of the backlash from a lottery scandal that the change was made.

We’ve certainly had our share of scandals in the past year at the national level, making reform seem likely.

We have some key support for our plan from House and Senate leadership. In the days following the election:

We’ve set up meetings with cosponsors of the new Clean Money, Clean Elections Act of 2007. Early
supporters include Rep. Tierney (Mass.) in the House and Sen. Durbin (Ill.) in the Senate.

We also have the support of Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.), the new House Majority Leader.

At press time, with the session not yet begun, things are looking good for our democracy work.

Following any election with a shift in control of Congress, there will be a lot of big talk. As the debate continues, we’ll continue to push for real reform that will solve the problem.