Reagan Letting Ethics Bill Die, Cites Need to Attract Personnel

President Reagan is vetoing compromise legislation that, for the first time, would have imposed restrictions on lobbying by former members of Congress and their senior staff members, the White House announced today.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, announcing Reagan’s decision to allow a Friday midnight signing deadline to pass without action, said the Administration concluded that provisions in the bill affecting executive branch employees would have discouraged people from working for the government.

“The President recognizes that this disapproval may not be good politics, but it is good government,” Fitzwater said.

“These laws should be fair, impartial, easily understood and should not erect barriers to public service,” he said. Fitzwater called the bill “over-reaching” and said it was “sloppily put together.”

In advance of Reagan’s announcement, President-elect George Bush had told reporters in Washington today that if the President killed the bill, he would push for some similar kind of legislation early in his Administration.

“I am going to have an ethics bill,” Bush said before departing for a Thanksgiving vacation at his retreat in Kennebunkport, Me. “And it’ll be a strong one. It’ll be a fair one.”

Bush also said, however, that while the ethics bill amounted to a “very good start,” there were some problems with certain provisions of the legislation.

“There were some changes in it that I guess nobody’s really happy with,” the vice president said.