Ethics, now

If congress had followed the fashion of naming legislation for individuals -- a la Megan’s Law -- the ethics and lobbying bill passed by the House on Tuesday could have been called Jack’s Law for ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff or Duke’s Law for California’s own ex-Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham. Although their names aren’t mentioned in it, these and other disgraced Beltway bandits are the inadvertent authors of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which could be approved by the Senate today. The public disaffection with the “culture of corruption” that helped Democrats regain control of Congress also explains why the House voted 411 to 8 to approve restrictions that many members privately hoped would never be enacted.

After both houses passed earlier versions of ethics legislation, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) blocked the convening of a conference committee because he was afraid it would bury provisions for robust disclosure of pet-project earmarks. Now DeMint is objecting to the bill passed to get around his obstructionism, because the Senate majority leader and relevant committee chairman, rather than the parliamentarian, will rule on whether earmarks have been appropriately disclosed. He plans to introduce an amendment that could derail the bill.

The Senate should pass the bill as is. In addition to shedding more light on earmarks, it would require fuller disclosure by lobbyists, forbid members from accepting meals and gifts from lobbyists and, in the case of the Senate, increase to two years the “cooling-off period” before a retiring senator could lobby his former colleagues.

The hardest-won reform would require the disclosure of campaign contributions collected or “bundled” by lobbyists. As with earmarks, this provision could have been stronger; an earlier version would have required lobbyists to file reports when bundled contributions totaled $5,000, a threshold now raised to $15,000. But that is still an improvement over the status quo, in which lawmakers -- but not the public -- know just how helpful lobbyists have been to their campaigns.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) deserves credit for shepherding this legislation to passage. But before anyone can talk about Nancy’s Law, the Senate must resist the temptation to make the unattainable best the enemy of the attainable good.