sub: Gift Reform Legislation

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Lobbyist Gift Reform Countdown, March 21, 1994
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Supporting the Lautenberg/Wellstone/Feingold
Lobbyist Gift Reform Bill ----------- S.1935
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SCUTTLEBUTT

When I was in high school, our school jazz band attended a clinic put on by the Stan Kenton Band. Mr. Kenton apologized that the band wasn't warmed up yet, so the sound might not be very good. Then he counted off, and the trumpet section let loose with a wall of sound. I was 5 feet from them, and I felt like that trumpet section was the only thing in the universe.

You could say that we citizens weren't warmed up either, but we created a wall of sound in Congress, with the single chorus of "Strong gift reform!" Now we must be even louder, because time is very short.

At present, the hot action is in the House. I spoke with Gary Ruskin of Ralph Nader's Congressional Accountability Project. The word from his sources is that the House of Representatives is freaking out, because suddenly and without warning they began getting lots of calls and letters from citizens across the country, criticizing HR.823 as miserably weak gift reform.

Poor, poor Congress; the voters noticed that they were on the take, and the House leadership is afraid of losing their perks. So they decided to rush HR.823 to the floor Thursday, March 24th. That's this Thursday! It appears that they don't want us to have a say in how and where they get their goodies. They see a groundswell developing, so they hope to get this bill moving before the heat gets so great that they cannot hold out.

Part of the pleasure of working the Internet is that we can outflank them at every turn. Let's turn our heavy guns on the House for the next two days and blow them out of the water.

In the Senate, the action is strong too. Our bill got an actual bill number! It is S.1935, and it is being printed up now. So now you can be very precise when telling your Senators what you support.

As an indication of how important the House action is right now, Senators Lautenberg and Wellstone may hold a news conference tomorrow with Common Cause and Public Citizen, calling on the House to amend their bill to look more like S.1935. The hope is that the glare of publicity may shame them into taking action.

The House leadership may go along with this, reasoning that such restrictions are extremely unpopular among the Representatives and will be defeated. However, we can deliver them a shocker. If your and my Representatives know that we are right on top of this one, they will be reluctant to vote against it. If we do a full-court press, we will win.

HOUSE

If you haven't made that phone call, waiting for the time when it counts the most, this is it. The sooner the better, because they may need a few days to get and read the Senate bill for comparison.

Write down the number of your representative's local office, put it in your wallet or purse, and call from work. Or if you live in the West, call Washington before you go to work. The Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121. Ask for your Representative's office.

If you called before, call again and tell them the number of the Senate bill which the House bill should copy.

I have a slight correction to previous statements. Please don't tell your Representative that you oppose HR.823. While we really don't need its worthless gift reform portion, it has lobbying disclosure provisions that could benefit us. However, we should push them to strengthen it by all means.

Here's the message: HR.823 needs to be strengthened so it includes a ban on all gifts to Congress. It should be amended to bring it up to the same standard as Senate bill S.1935.

If you do this, your children will thank you for helping restore democracy. And if you want to do more, contact your friends in other Congressional districts and ask them to call. There are times when extraordinary efforts are called for, and this is one of them.

SENATE

Until Thursday, March 24th, all your energy should go to your Representative in the House. Starting Thursday evening, this newsletter will have the results. We may ask you to take further action with the House if the debate goes beyond one day.

But after the House votes, you can turn your attention back to the Senate. May 4th is the day the floor debate will begin. Up to May 4th, keep sending letters and phoning your Senators. Ask them to support S.1935, the Lautenberg/Wellstone/Feingold gift reform bill.

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If you have any questions, call Gary Ruskin, organizing director of the Congressional Accountability Project (CAP) at (202) 387-8030 or e-mail to Gary@essential.org. If you want to be placed on the Congressional Accountability Project's e-mail mailing list on congressional reform, send the message "subscribe" to Gary@essential.org.

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Organizations which have endorsed S.1395:

Public Citizen

Common Cause

(This space for your organization)