Posted by
Arnie on Friday, January 05, 2007 8:11:07 PM
New rules of the House passed today. Hold your applause.
The summary is below, or you
can read the entire resolution here.
ENDING THE K STREET PROJECT
Prohibits Members from
threatening official retaliation against private firms that hire employees who do not share the Member's partisan political affiliation.
LOBBYIST GIFT BAN
Prohibits Members and
employees from accepting gifts from a registered lobbyist, from an agent of a
foreign principal, or an entity that employs or retains these lobbyists and
agents. Under the current gift rule, Members and employees may accept gifts
valued less than $50 (and a total of $100 per calendar year) from these
lobbyists and agents.
LOBBYIST TRAVEL
RESTRICTIONS/ONE-DAY TRIPS
Prohibits Members and
employees from accepting travel reimbursements from a registered lobbyist, from
an agent of a foreign country, or from an entity that employs or retains these
lobbyists and agents
NEW TRAVEL AUTHORIZATION
AND PUBLIC DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS
Members and employees will
be required to obtain a certification from the entity paying for the trip
declaring that, except as permitted for universities and one-day travel,
lobbyists did not plan, organize, request, arrange, or finance the travel.
CORPORATE JET BAN
Prohibits Members from
using official, personal, or campaign funds to pay for the use of privately
owned airplanes. (Members will still be able to charter commercially available
airplanes.)
ETHICS TRAINING
Annual ethics training to
Members and appropriate employees.
COMMITTEE NAME CHANGES No big deal.
HOLDING VOTES OPEN
Prohibits the Speaker from
holding votes open for longer than the scheduled time for the sole purpose of
changing the outcome of the vote.
CONFERENCE PROCEDURE No big deal.
FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY
Prohibits the House from
considering budget resolutions or amendments to budget resolutions that contain
reconciliation instructions increasing the budget deficit.
EARMARK REFORM
Requires committees of
jurisdiction and conference committees to publish lists of the earmarks,
limited tax benefits, and limited tariff benefits contained in all reported
bills, unreported bills, manager's amendments, and conference reports that come
to the House floor. These lists will be electronically available to the public
Now don’t get all that
excited that these new rules will be the catchall and end the special interest
groups and the lobbyists influence on the House, or that it will bring a new
brand of civility to the house of representative. There
are loopholes. And, they have
already been found. Gee, imagine that.
Being a conservative, I’m more than a bit
upset with our republican house leadership of the past, the Dennis Hasterts,
who really are the ones to blame for this democratic take over, by his allowing the
corruption and the massive spending of the past 6 years. It cannot all be blamed on the war against
terror and the expenses related to that war effort.
There are some good rule
changes here and time will tell just how well they will be followed and
enforced. You know the track record of
the feds enforcing rules is not all that good, but we can hope though. You’ve heard what they say about a fence
along the southern border: “someone can always find a way to circumvent a
fence”, it’s not the end all”. Guess
what? “Rules are made to be
broken”. And these will be broken too.
It’s not like a football game with referees watching every play with the
authority to throw a red flag. Penalty
10 yards. Did you see any thing like
a $10,000 fine for breaking a rule written in these changes?
Nancy and company is just
getting started, so let them have the rope and do their own tying of the
knots.
As I See It Now.