Senate Approves Tougher Restrictions on Lobbying

The Senate, reacting to scandals involving Reagan Administration appointees, shouted approval Tuesday of a bill that would strengthen restrictions against lobbying by former government officials and for the first time extend the limits to former members of Congress.

Conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats united in support of the landmark bill, which would make it a crime for former senators, House members and senior executive branch officials to engage in many kinds of paid lobbying for a year after leaving government service.

“For once, Congress is doing the right thing,” said Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio). “Day after day, we find former members of Congress are getting unbelievably high fees for influencing their former colleagues. Lobbyists should be paid for what they know, not who they know.”

The measure, approved on a voice vote with no dissent, now goes to the House, where its prospects are uncertain. A House Judiciary subcommittee plans hearings Thursday on similar legislation.

“In general, we want to move in the same direction as the Senate,” said Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the subcommittee. The House Democratic leadership has not taken a stand on the issue.

The swift approval of the Senate bill came after federal convictions of former White House aides Michael K. Deaver and Lyn Nofziger on charges related to their high-paid lobbying jobs within months after they left President Reagan’s staff.

In some quarters, it was dubbed the “never again Mike Deaver” bill, although Deaver was convicted of perjury in testimony to Congress and a federal grand jury rather than for his high-powered lobbying activity. Nofziger was convicted of lobbying his White House colleagues within a year of leaving his job as President Reagan’s political adviser.

Whitney North Seymour Jr., the Republican special counsel who achieved Deaver’s conviction under the 1979 Ethics in Government Act, sharply criticized that law as inadequate and denounced Washington officials for lack of concern about integrity. “Vast sums of money,” Seymour said, were being spent by corporations and foreign governments “to buy influence and favors.”

Sponsors of the Senate bill included conservative Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), who enlisted the support of his ideological opposite, Metzenbaum of Ohio.

Narrow Scope of Bill

On the eve of the vote, however, they agreed to narrow the scope of the measure to win the support of Sen. Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.) and avoid a confrontation.

In general, the bill would tighten existing restrictions against lobbying by high government officials immediately after they leave their posts.

In the executive branch, it would apply to Cabinet members, their deputies and undersecretaries, about two dozen top White House officials and 9,100 other senior employees who make more than $64,400 a year.

And it would restrict lobbying by former members of the Senate and House, along with 1,580 of their chief aides.

The bill would bar all these former officials from working for a foreign government, a foreign political party, or an organization controlled by a foreign government for 18 months after leaving the U.S. government.

These are the other key provisions of the bill:

--Former members of Congress would be barred from being paid to lobby Congress, Cabinet members, their deputies or top White House aides for one year. Under the compromise with Rudman, they would be permitted to lobby lower-level White House and Cabinet officials and heads of the regulatory agencies and other independent agencies.

Executive Branch Limits

--The 43 very top officials in the executive branch--Cabinet members, deputies, undersecretaries and senior White House aides--would be barred for one year from paid lobbying anywhere in the executive branch and from approaching members of Congress on behalf of a client. They would be permitted to lobby congressional staff members.

--The next highest-ranking group of executive and legislative branch employees--those who now make from $64,400 to $77,500 a year--would be forbidden from lobbying in their own former workplace for a year.

The Ethics in Government Act now prohibits lobbying by executive branch officials. Its restrictions range from a year in most cases to lifetime for matters that the officials personally handled while in the government.

Thurmond, asked if the Deaver and Nofziger cases influenced the Senate, said: “I think they helped us get this bill through.”