Panel Proposes New Standards for Senators in Aiding Donors

A Senate task force, responding to the “Keating Five” affair, proposed new code-of-conduct standards Thursday aimed at policing the favors members provide to campaign donors.

But the team of senators appointed by Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) failed to offer language expressly guiding members on what conduct on behalf of constituents would be considered acceptable.

It proposed only to frown upon the furnishing of help “on the basis of contributions.” The amendment to the Code of Official Conduct, would provide less guidance in this area than suggested by Keating Five special counsel Robert Bennett.

Bennett recommended that senators weigh whether a constituent’s interests conflict with the public good when carrying out responsibilities to respond to citizens’ calls for help.

Consumer activist Ralph Nader immediately labeled the task force proposal “worse than a toothless tiger--a toothless pussycat.”

The Rules Committee will decide whether to approve the task force’s recommendations, and Mitchell set a 30-day deadline for comment on the proposal, which states:

“The decision to provide assistance to petitioners (constituents) may not be made on the basis of contributions or services, or promises of contributions or services, to the member’s political campaigns or to other organizations in which the member has a political, personal or financial interest.”

At the heart of the Keating Five episode was the allegation that five senators intervened improperly with federal savings-and-loan regulators on behalf of Lincoln Savings & Loan owner Charles H. Keating Jr.

Last year, the Senate sought no punishment for four of the five senators. But in November, Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) was issued a formal reprimand.