Unfinished Ethics Agenda Comes To Fore As Lawmakers Return From Break

WASHINGTON — More than three months since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised "the most honest, ethical and open" Congress in history, her new Democratic leadership returns from spring recess this week facing a growing urgency to complete ethics reforms.

Although the House moved quickly early this year to swear off most lobbyist-paid meals and travel as well as rides on corporate jets, other proposed changes are still being debated.

The crucial issue of how to enforce congressional standards is scheduled for a first public hearing Thursday by Pelosi's special bipartisan ethics task force, which has already fallen a month behind its original deadline for making a recommendation.

At the same, the House leadership is working, largely behind closed doors, on proposals that are expected to be unveiled within the next two weeks.

Among the major changes being considered:

— Requiring disclosure of so-called "bundlers." These are the lobbyists and other major fundraisers who solicit campaign contributions, sometimes adding up to $1 million or more, and deliver them as a "bundle" to candidates.

— A controversial proposal to require some paid lobbyists to file disclosures for organizing grass-roots voters and urging them to contact their Congress members on legislative matters.

— A tighter "revolving door" law that would bar members of Congress from engaging in any lobbying activity for two years after they leave the legislature.

Reform advocates, expressing hope for visible progress within the next few weeks, warn that failure to act soon could endanger the effort to polish the tarnished image of Congress.

"Delays potentially play into the hands of people who don't want to do anything," said Fred Wertheimer, president of the pro-reform group Democracy 21.

Corruption charges were central to the 2006 elections that gave Democrats majority control of the House.

But Wertheimer said, "The longer it moves away from the scandals and the election that created the mandate for these elections, the more it plays into the hands of the opponents."

Democratic Rep. Timothy Mahoney of Florida is among the freshmen who came to Washington on a reform platform and who have been pressing their House leaders for action.

"We're very zealous in our commitment to make sure all these things are implemented," said Mahoney, whose Palm Beach County, Fla., district that had been held by Rep. Mark Foley, the Republican who was forced to resign for sending sexually suggestive e-mails to congressional pages.

"I think we're moving in the right direction," Mahoney said, but "not as fast as I like."

He objected to Pelosi's decision to create a task force to study ethics enforcement. "It's clear that it's broken," Mahoney said. "Why do I need a task force to tell me?"

He joined a fellow freshman Democrat, Baron Hill of Indiana, on legislation to set up an outside panel of former members to oversee ethics rules. Enforcement is now the job of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, a panel that is evenly divided by party and frequently criticized as weak.

Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the leading Republican member of Pelosi's ethics advisory task force, raised skeptical questions about major revisions, however.

"We certainly think more transparency would benefit the process," said the Republican, an 11-term member and former ethics committee chairman, in an interview from his district last week.

But Smith added that if the names of members who are investigated are made public, "How do you implement that without damaging the reputation of innocent people?"

As for an outside enforcement panel, he asked, "What would an (outside) entity do any differently?"

Proposals to change ethics and lobbying rules will almost certainly draw objections, both from veteran lawmakers and from outside groups.

Abortion foes and free speech advocates, in particular, have objected to any regulation of grass-roots lobbying efforts.

"It's going to be a battle," predicted Craig Holman, a lobbyist for Public Citizen, part of an alliance of watchdog groups that have been meeting almost weekly to plot strategies for their reform campaign.

Another reform advocate, Meredith McGehee of the Campaign Legal Center, said she is optimistic that the House will wrap up its lobbying and ethics proposals soon and be ready to go to conference with the Senate to complete all the necessary legislation this summer.

"I think it's critical," McGehee said of the timing. "If it goes past Memorial Day, that just empowers the opponents."