Lobbying Transparency Act of 2007
Floor Speech
LOBBYING TRANSPARENCY ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - May 24, 2007)
Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 437, I call up the bill (H.R. 2317) to amend the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 to require registered lobbyists to file quarterly reports on contributions bundled for certain recipients, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
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Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, the moment has come in this very important session of Congress that we examine the lobbying and bundling provisions that have been of such interest and debate for the past several months.
This measure, the Lobbying Transparency Act, will more effectively regulate, but does not ban, the practice of registered lobbyists bundling together the large numbers of campaign contributions to candidates for Federal office. This is a practice that has already taken root in Presidential campaigns.
In essence, the bill requires a registered lobbyist who bundles two or more contributions made to a candidate to file quarterly reports with the House Clerk and Secretary of the Senate.
I want to begin by paying tribute to the gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Chris Van Hollen, for the enormous amount of work not only in this Congress but in the previous Congress that he has put forward on behalf of this measure.
Under the bill, the bundled contribution is limited to contributions which the lobbyist physically receives and forwards to the candidate, or which are credited to the lobbyist through a specific tracking system put in place by the candidate. In order to better ensure that a registered lobbyist does not inaccurately report contributions involving a candidate, the measure further requires the lobbyist to send the candidate a proposed statement first. This allows the candidate or the political action committee to correct any errors.
This legislation reflects considerable input on Members of the House of Representatives both on the Judiciary Committee and off the Judiciary Committee.
It reflects the considered judgment of many Members not even on the Judiciary Committee. We've worked with the public interest groups around the clock to craft a workable piece of legislation that provides for the disclosure of large-scale bundling in a way that provides clear and enforceable legal requirements.
The American people have been waiting for this. We've talked about this for a considerable period of time, and many people now have realized that the House of Representatives has taken a very important step in moving this measure forward.
Most significantly, the measure does not include the provision that would have counted as bundled any contribution arranged by a lobbyist. After careful consideration, we've concluded that as the Senate provision is written, it was too vague to be effectively enforced.
And so I rise today to let you know of my firm conviction that we ultimately need to move to assist the public financing of campaigns, and I don't mean somewhere in the nebulous future; I'm talking about as soon as we can. But until we do, I remain persuaded that the legislation today represents an extremely important step forward toward that reform when coupled with the other lobbying reform measure that is before us.
This is not the perfect bill. I'm still looking for a Member that has ever passed the perfect piece of legislation. But I draw to my colleagues' attention this measure and ask that they examine it carefully and recognize the importance and significance of this measure.
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Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself 15 seconds.
When we went to the Rules Committee, my dear friend Lamar Smith and myself, there were 48 amendments already filed when we got there. I don't know how many were ultimately considered.
Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen), the one Member who has worked longer and harder than anyone else on this matter, a former member of the Judiciary Committee.
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Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the remainder of the time.
I urge my colleagues to step up to the plate this afternoon, the day before we go out into recess, to join with your Committee on the Judiciary in their bipartisan support for this bundling bill. It's necessary that we continue to bring sunlight on the workings of the lobbying organizations and the fundraising as it affects the congressional product.
It's important, as a part of the promise that we have made to the American people, that we work to restore their confidence in us, and this will be accomplished, in part, by what we do here on the floor of the House of Representatives on this day. I hope we will keep that commitment by passing this very important measure before us, H.R. 2317, the Lobbying Transparency Act of 2007.
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Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, reserving the right to object, and I believe I may have to object, because we are just seeing the motion for the first time.
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Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to the motion to recommit.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. CONYERS. Members of the House, recommit motions too frequently here have become procedural tactics that are not based on the work that we have done in the committee up until now. And I rise to oppose the provision because it raises conveniently a new issue not discussed in our hearings and not even raised in the markup. I don't think that it is really going to be helpful to the bundling law at all.
As I understand this motion to recommit, this is a broad new provision that would make the bill even more complex and difficult to administer. We have had that problem with this measure in the other body, and we certainly don't want to bring that kind of strategy into the measure before us now. It would seem to sweep into its reach entities that are not public or official.
This would include political action committees created by the following organization. It would include the National Rifle Association, the Right to Life Organization, even the Congressional Black Caucus. It would include Emily's List. It would seem to me that this would really confuse the bill, and I urge my Members, at this late date, under this strategy, to oppose the amendment.
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Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, the fact of the matter is that these organizations aren't the objects of a bundling activity, the National Rifle Association, the right-to-life, and others. This is a poison pill amendment.
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