Corporations can make more, better, and cheaper. Sorry, I'm all about quality. I would rather pay $10 for something I'm going to enjoy then gag on something that's cheaper and I want to stand for something and be "loyal."
Well before Election Day, the smart-money lobbyists of K Street were already shifting campaign donations to safe Democratic incumbents, greasing access to the next Congressional majority. That should be warning enough to the incoming speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, to deliver quickly and credibly on their campaign vows to attack the corrupt, quid-pro-quo culture that besotted the Republican-controlled Capitol.
Yet even before the new Congress arrives, there is disquieting talk of advance compromises on what will be done — or not done. It’s fortunate the incoming members will be in the Capitol this week, preparing for January and, not incidentally, observing the lame-duck finale of the Congress that failed on this vital issue.
There will be only one good chance to get this right. Once the new year begins, any feeling of urgency will fade, replaced by a determination to acquire, and protect, whatever power and turf are available. At a minimum, the reforms must include:
Creation of a public integrity office to do more than merely audit lobbyists’ filings. If Congress is to regain the public’s respect, both houses must create an independent office to investigate the behavioral lapses of lawmakers themselves, not just their sycophants. Anything less, and the ethics issue falls back into the lap of the moribund internal policing machinery that has long protected wayward members.
An enforceable ban, with penalties, on all meals, gifts and travel — not just from lobbyists, but also from the organizations that hire them. The ban should cover staff members as well. Privately financed “fact-finding” junkets should at long last be banned, along with lawmakers’ riding as fat cats’ chattel on corporate jets for token fares.
Restraints on the revolving-door horde of Congressional alumni turned backslapping lobbyists. Former lawmakers should be required to wait two years, not one, before cashing in on their nice-to-see-you cachet. No lobbyists, even former members, should have access to the floor, gym or cloakroom of either house. If a sitting member of Congress or a staff member starts negotiating for a job in the private sector, he or she should be required to disclose it. The public cannot be expected to tolerate replays of the low moment when architects of the new Medicare drug subsidy plan were secretly working to land lucrative jobs in the pharmaceutical industry while they devised the legislation.
Detailed disclosure of costly and undebated “earmarks” — amendments passed as pork-barrel favors to backdoor pleaders. The secretive spending and midnight conference games should be brought into the sunlight via Internet technology. Transparency will not stop lawmakers from trying to get funding for pet projects back home. But it might at least discourage them from doing the same thing on behalf of special interest lobbyists.
The new Congress must realize the ethics issue will test its mettle in the opening hours, and signal if real change is possible. A field general of the incoming majority, Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, is already warning that failure to deliver on ethics reform will be “devastating to our standing” in the very first moment of Democratic power.
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