sub: Gift Reform Legislation
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Lobbyist Gift Reform Countdown, March 26, 1994
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Supporting the Lautenberg/Wellstone/Feingold
Lobbyist Gift Reform Bill ----------- S.1935
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I have a copy of the text of S.1935 in hand. I keep being told that it can be gotten online, but so far I have no proof. I am getting a clean copy mailed to me, and I will try to get that scanned in at a copy shop.

Certain people have wanted to look at the text of the bill to answer questions like, "What is its definition of a lobbyist?" Please send your mail address to d.wiesner@genie.geis.com and I will mail you a copy by USPS.

SCUTTLEBUTT

A quick summary of what we know.

S.349 is the new name of the HOUSE bill. As reported before, only the title of the Senate bill was left intact, and it was amended in committee to contain the entire text of HR.823. More about why later.

Rep. Bryant and many other Members stood up and said that this bill was not directed at the 99% of Congress who were ethical, but at the public, who erroneously believed that their representatives were influenced by lobbyists. Therefore, Congress needed to assuage these concerns, no matter how misplaced they were.

I spoke with a representative of Common Cause who followed the debate. Common Cause was not happy with the bill as written, because it does nothing to ban gifts and travel. But by the end of the debate, he was happy to see it pass, because those who spoke out against it made quite a stink about the burden of its reporting requirements. He considered these reporting requirements to be a step in the right direction.

This bill was voted in under a rule prohibiting amendments, so it couldn't be strengthened. He suspects that the reason they used Senate bill S.349 instead of HR.823 was so they could rush this bill into conference before Lautenberg/Wellstone gets out of committee. They can make the argument that S.349 was the Senate's bill which was already passed, so there is no reason to go into conference with L/W.

He recommended our next action, but I am starting to learn that everyone in Washington has a different idea about what kind of action to take. Since the House is on a two-week recess, I am going to check around and find out what other options are being recommended.

This also means that future issues of this newsletter will only appear when there is something to report. (Sigh of relief from the online community)

COMMENTARY

This newsletter was started to push one particular piece of legislation. But it was also meant to begin a process that starts with something small and keeps on going until it gets at the very seat of lobbyist power.

Can we as citizens find out where our government has been corrupted and defeat the sources of this corruption? The answer has to be yes, because the alternative is to sit at home and take it, or eventually to take up arms.

I for one refuse to just take it. We have the Internet, an anarchic system which allows rapid spreading of important information. This is the first part of a toolkit for democracy.

But it will only work if the information reaches people throughout the country. It can do this if we link up the Internet with a wide variety of sources of information, and if we build an alliance of organizations that realize they must align themselves.

A small beginning was made with the commitment of people on this net to copy these newsletters to other systems. Fidonet is one. Had we been better organized, it could have been posted to the commercial networks.

To win requires that many organizations swallow their individual pride and admit that they are not strong enough by themselves to beat the rich and powerful few. They need to commit to setting aside a portion of their time to fighting in a coalition with hundreds of other organizations.

I am sure that many grassroots organizations have felt the sting of defeat at the hands of industry lobbyists. They can understand the importance of this battle.

Please help shorten my search. If any of you are members of organizations which can be approached to lend a hand, please send some e-mail to d.wiesner@genie.geis.com. Give the name of the organization, contact person (if possible), and a way to contact them, such as a telephone number or e-mail address.

HOUSE

Pass out hankies to your family and have a good cry for the House leadership, who can't stand the burden of reporting all the gifts they get from lobbyists.

SENATE

Some of us have copies of S.1935 in hand, but so far no electronic copy online. If you have any way of making this happen, please help.

ACTION THEN

Let's suppose the worst, that Congress rushes S.349 into House/Senate conference and sends phony gift reform to the President before S.1935 goes to a floor vote. What can we do next? Here's an idea.

The March 14th Wall Street Journal said in a front page article that every summer Pacific Bell flies a bunch of congressional staffers out to San Francisco and gives them two days of seminars, followed by two days of wine country tours. I am already drawing up plans to go on the same wine tour with about 100 other people, complete with signs and banners, reporters, and a TV crew. We are going to crowd in the same wineries as they do and ask them lots of embarassing questions.

This can be replicated everywhere these conclaves take place. They are good publicity, and they show the American people just what their Congress is up to. As long as Congress resists passing reform legislation, this kind of guerrilla theater will show them for the corrupt House of Commerce that they are.