WASHINGTON — Seeking to repair Congress' tarred image, the Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed the toughest new ethics rules since the Watergate era.
The legislation is aimed at reining in the influence of special interests by forbidding lobbyists and their employers from buying meals and gifts for lawmakers and paying for their junkets.
It also seeks to end the secrecy surrounding efforts to secure federal funding for pet projects, a practice known as earmarking that figured prominently in several recent congressional scandals.
The ethics bill was the first one brought before the Senate by its newly elected Democratic majority after a campaign that highlighted congressional corruption. And the measure's supporters argued that it would ensure Capitol Hill handled its business in a more above-board fashion. "With their votes last November, the American people made it clear that they wanted us to change the way Washington works, and that's exactly what the Senate did today," said Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat in the chamber.
The measure passed 96 to 2; casting the "no" votes were Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). Sens. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) did not vote.
Even some of the bill's supporters, however, were skeptical about whether it would prevent corruption.
"We can write all the rules we want, but if a member of this body has the instincts of corruption in his soul, he will find a way around the rules," Sen. Robert F. Bennett (R-Utah) said during debate this week.
The bill does little to address the source of lobbyists' greatest influence: campaign contributions.
"While we are eliminating the $20 lunches and the club-level tickets to local sporting events, this bill does not address what is an even more pressing issue, namely the $10,000 campaign contributions" that come from corporate political action committees, said Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.).
Paul Miller, a former president of the American League of Lobbyists, noted that lobbyists still would be able to take senators to an expensive lunch -- so long as they pay for the meal as a campaign donation.
But ethics watchdogs, who often have cast a critical eye on lawmakers' proposals to toughen congressional rules, cheered the Senate action.
