Feingold takes on K Street

By Jonathan E. Kaplan/The Hill

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) will introduce a bill today that would radically overhaul the ways in which lobbyists and lawmakers interact with one another.

Feingold's bill would require more disclosure of meetings between lawmakers and lobbyists, curb privately funded travel, slow the revolving door between government service and lobbying, and raise the cost of traveling on private jets, according to talking points released by Feingold's spokesman.

Perhaps the most substantial change to current lobbying laws is a prohibition on former senators-turned-lobbyists from using the Senate gym or visiting current members on the Senate floor.

This is second time Feingold has played a leading role in pushing for changes to laws governing the way groups try to influence members and Congress. Along with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), in 2002 he overcame opposition from Republican leaders to pass the biggest overhaul of campaign finance laws in 25 years.

McCain told The Hill earlier this week that he would wait to endorse a lobbying reform bill until he has concluded his last hearing of his investigation into how GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associate Michael Scanlon allegedly bilked several Indian tribes out of a reported $80 million. His next hearing is scheduled for later this summer.

Specifics of Feingold's bill include,

* Requiring lobbying disclosure reports to be filed quarterly rather than semi-annually.

* Requiring disclosure in the quarterly lobbying reports of grassroots lobbying, coalition lobbying and phone calls or in-person meetings with lawmakers, including the substance of those meetings.

* Lawmakers will have to sign a statement indicating that lobbyists are not paying for privately funded travel and pay the cost of charter airfare rather than just first class airfare when flying aboard private jets.

* A total gift ban and a $50,000 fine for violating the ban.

* Executive branch officials, lawmakers, and staff must wait two years instead of one year to lobby. And, they will be prohibited from contacting former colleagues in this time frame, as well as supervising a lobbying shop.

* Former lawmakers and staffers will be banned from contacting the entire Congress rather than just the former office in which they worked and, in their disclosure forms, they will have to indicate all former executive or legislative branch employment rather than just where they've worked in the past two years.

Reps. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) and Marty Meehan (D-Mass.) have introduced similar legislation in the House.