GOP filibusters Ethics Legislation

[TheDoctor]

The GOP lost control of the House and the Senate in part due to the culture of corruption that has been a part of the GOP controlled congress under Delay and others. Even under then Majority Leader Boehner, the gop refused or were unable to pass any ethics reforn legislation.

The new House controlled by the Democrats has already passed an ethics reform bill. The GOP in the Senate are relying on their old ways and are not blocking a similar bill in the Senate. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/17/AR2007011702443_pf.html

Senate Republicans scuttled broad legislation last night to curtail lobbyists' influence and tighten congressional ethics rules, refusing to let the bill pass without a vote on an unrelated measure that would give President Bush virtual line-item-veto power.

The bill could be brought back up later this year. Indeed, Democrats will try one last time today to break the impasse. But its unexpected collapse last night infuriated Democrats and the government watchdog groups that had been pushing it since the lobbying scandals that rocked the last Congress. Proponents charged that Republicans had used the spending-control measure as a ruse to thwart ethics rules they dared not defeat in a straight vote.

"It's as obvious as the sun coming up somewhere in this world that they tried to kill this bill," a furious Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said last night in an interview. "And all 21 Republican senators up for reelection are going to have to explain how they brought down the most significant reform ever to come before this Congress. They brought this baby down."...

The bill matched the rule changes approved earlier this month in the House, banning meals, trips and gifts from lobbyists. But it went beyond those internal alterations to effect legal changes that would have reached far beyond Capitol Hill. Democrats pushed amendments that would have forced lobbyists to publicly divulge the small campaign contributions they collect from clients and "bundle" into large contributions. Lavish gatherings thrown by lobbyists and corporate interests at party conventions would have been banned.

The culture of corruption is too much a part of the GOP for the GOP to agree to any ethics bill.

 

[TheDoctor]

Yeah. The Senate passed ethics legislation yesterday. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-01-18-ethicsbill_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA

WASHINGTON — The Senate late Thursday passed a bill with ethics rules aimed at changing the way lobbyists and lawmakers do business with each other.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called it the "most significant legislation in ethics and lobbying reform we've had in the history of this country."

 

[lindalinda]

So, was the line item veto kept in? Or was it just the original bill?