July 18, 2008 – 1:12 p.m.
With reporting deadlines looming, congressional officers have issued revised guidelines that ease some of the lobbying disclosure requirements enacted last year.
The revised guidance, issued by the Clerk of the House and Secretary of the Senate, relaxed the rules for disclosure of lobbyist contributions to parties at this summer’s Democratic and Republican national conventions, among other changes.
Some experts criticized the changes as backsliding, but leaders of outside watchdog groups said Democratic leaders had “reached out” to vet the revisions in advance of their release.
Republican leaders were quick to distance themselves from the revisions.
“We were not consulted on this matter and the Democrats took this action on their own,” said Kevin Smith, a spokesman for Minority Leader
The changes, issued late July 16, exempt a lobbyist from reporting spending for an event listing a lawmaker as “attendee” or “special invitee,” as opposed to the honored guest.
The new guidelines also exempt from disclosure money a lobbyist raises for a charity that is not created or controlled by a lawmaker by sponsoring an event that names a lawmaker as an “honorary co-host.
“The purpose of the event is to raise funds for [charity], not to honor or recognize” the lawmaker, according to the guidance.
Under the new guidance lobbyists are no longer automatically required to disclose when they attend an event where a lawmaker is a co-chairman and the lobbyist donates at least $200, according to a senior Democratic Senate aide. Under the old guidance issued May 29, lobbyists would have had to disclose that they attended the event because a member of Congress had lent their name.
The changes open the Democratic leadership to charges that lawmakers are retreating from ethical reform that was at the heart of the 2006 campaign.
Democrats in 2006 won back control of both chambers of Congress for the first time in a dozen years by campaigning against a “culture of corruption” that included criminal charges for influence peddling between lawmakers and lobbyists.
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