Senate Passes Limits on Lavish Lobbyist Gifts

The Senate voted Friday to adopt new, lifestyle-altering rules that significantly limit the free meals, complimentary tickets, expense-paid vacations and other lavish gifts its members may accept from lobbyists.

The new rules, which apply only to the Senate and do not require House or presidential approval, were hailed by supporters as a major step toward changing the way business is done in Washington and helping to restore public confidence in Congress.

Their adoption is expected to have a significant impact on Senate members, many of whom participate regularly in congressional junkets and dine frequently at the expense of lobbyists representing an array of industries and interest groups in Washington.

“The golf trips, ski outings and so forth, paid for by special interests, are ended--gone, done with,” declared Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), a longtime advocate of such restrictions.

“The gift ban is long overdue,” noted Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.). “It’s time to make the political process more accountable to citizens and less accountable to special interests.”

The gift ban was the second major reform adopted unanimously by the Senate this week. On Tuesday, senators approved a bill that would require virtually all lobbyists to register, many of them for the first time. That measure, which must win House approval before it can take effect, also would force lobbyists to disclose the fees they receive and the identity of their clients.

Consumer groups lauded Friday’s vote and quickly called on the House to follow suit by adopting similar rules. But a spokesman for House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Tex.) said it is “doubtful” that the House would act on lobbyist gifts this year.

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Beginning Jan. 1, 1996, senators, their families, and members of their staffs will be barred from accepting any gift worth more than $50, or a series of gifts with a combined value of more than $100, from a single source in any calendar year. Gifts received from family members or longstanding personal friends are not subject to the ceiling. And only those gifts valued at more than $10 each count toward the $100 annual limit.

Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.) said that Friday’s vote sends a clear message to the Senate’s 100 members: Either “just say no” to lobbyists bearing gifts, or “pay your own way” when accepting their invitations.

Added Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), another gift-ban proponent and a key figure in the intense, behind-the-scenes negotiations over the new rules: “The question is whether we’ll live like most Americans do.”

Friday’s unanimous vote belies the eleventh-hour suspense that threatened final passage of the gift rules after a successful Republican-led but bipartisan effort to water them down somewhat.

By a 54-46 vote, with more than a dozen Democrats joining the GOP, the Senate approved an amendment offered by Senate Republican Whip Trent Lott of Mississippi to double the annual single-source gift ceiling to $100. Under Lott’s amendment, only gifts valued at more than $50 each would have counted toward that ceiling, allowing senators to accept a potentially unlimited number of gifts in the under-$50 range.

Approval of the amendment visibly enraged Feingold and Wellstone, and they threatened to engage in delaying tactics to call attention to a loophole that they said would allow senators to accept smaller gifts “in perpetuity.”

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Sources said that Lott was somewhat taken aback by the anger they displayed during private negotiations, and he offered a concession: He was willing to reduce to $20 the threshold below which gifts would not be counted toward the annual ceiling of $100.

But Feingold and Wellstone held firm to their $10 limit and Lott finally caved in on that point. But he prevailed on keeping the individual gift limit at $50. The reformers, including William S. Cohen (R-Me.), initially had sought to set the level at $20 per gift.

Floor debate over the dollar amount of the limit meandered far from the sublime as senators haggled over the fine print, displaying their culinary preferences in the process.

“The idea that we can be bought for a steak but not for a hamburger--I do not understand that. I like hamburgers better anyway,” Lott fumed, adding sarcastically: “It’s OK if members go out to a luncheon and get hamburgers. But it’s not OK if members go to dinner and have a steak--give me a break!”

Despite the compromises made along the way, reformers expressed satisfaction with the final product.

“This is a good bill but not a great bill,” said Levin. “This represents significant progress. We didn’t accomplish everything we wanted but it is significant gift reform. It will help, I hope, to restore some public confidence in this institution.”

In an earlier showdown, the Senate rejected an attempt by Sen. Frank H. Murkowski (R-Alaska) to keep alive the widespread practice of accepting free travel and lodging for charity events, such as tennis, golf and ski outings. Murkowski’s proposal was voted down, 60 to 39.

“It’s been two years of constant struggle over this. People are very reluctant to give it up,” said Wellstone, referring to a similar ban that passed both the House and Senate last year, but ultimately was killed by a GOP-led filibuster.

After Friday’s Senate action, Feingold expressed the hope that the lobby reform and the gifts-ban votes will give fresh impetus toward campaign finance reform and new limits on the revolving door syndrome--when former lawmakers use their connections as lobbyists--which he characterized as “the cycle of special influence” that surrounds Washington.

The new Senate rules, to be enforced by its Ethics Committee, also will bar lobbyists from contributing to legal expense funds, congressional retreats or conferences or charities controlled by a senator or his or her staff.

The rules will still permit senators to accept food, refreshments and entertainment at widely attended events that are related to their official duties.

As with current rules, gifts based on personal relationships that are valued at more than $250 must be approved by the Ethics Committee and must be listed on financial disclosure forms.

Current laws permit members of Congress and their staffs to accept aggregate gifts of up to $250, but gifts of less than $100 in value do not count toward that limit.