WASHINGTON — Moving to distance themselves from a growing corruption scandal, House GOP leaders Sunday chose Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas) to lead a crash effort to draw up legislation aimed at curbing the influence of lobbyists.
Dreier, the chairman of the House Rules Committee, flew back to Washington from California after House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) asked him to take on the high-profile assignment.
"We want to deal with this issue and get it behind us as quickly as possible," Dreier told Fox News before heading to the airport. Several proposals from members of both parties already have been introduced.
The announcement of Dreier's assignment came as Rep. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), chairman of the Education and the Workforce Committee, and Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the acting majority leader, said that they were entering the race to succeed Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas).
DeLay stepped down as House majority leader in September after being indicted on money-laundering charges in his home state. He said Saturday that he would not seek to regain his leadership position.
On Sunday, in DeLay's first television interview since his announcement, he said his decision was unrelated to the ongoing federal corruption investigation involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff. "I am not a target of this investigation," DeLay told Fox News.
Abramoff, whom DeLay described Sunday as a friend, acknowledged in guilty pleas last week that he cheated Indian tribal clients out of tens of millions of dollars and attempted to influence legislators with expensive trips, gifts and campaign contributions.
Although a number of proposals to overhaul lobbying rules have been introduced, finding bipartisan agreement on such an issue in an election year that might shift control of Congress could prove difficult.
In broad terms, Republicans favor changes that would require disclosure of contacts with lobbyists. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, for example, has suggested creating a website on which all government officials would have to post their interactions with lobbyists on a weekly basis.
Democrats would go beyond that. A proposal by Rep. David R. Obey of Wisconsin would bar lawmakers and staffers from accepting any trips from lobbyists. Before accepting a trip paid for by an outside party, lawmakers would have to certify that no lobbyists had been invited to travel along or participate in meetings.
