Lobbying Disclosure Enhancement Act

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I support H.R. 5751, the Lobbying Disclosure Enhancement Act. The purpose of the bill is to provide flexibility to the executive branch for the enforcement of the provisions in the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995.

H.R. 5751 directs the Attorney General of the United States to establish a task force towards this end. The task force is given the primary responsibility to investigate and prosecute possible violations of the Lobbying Disclosure Act. The task force is also directed to collect and disseminate information with respect to compliance with the enforcement of the act.

Legislation specifies that with the information gathered by the task force, the Attorney General may make recommendations to Congress with regard to improving enforcement of the Lobbying Disclosure Act and the resources it needs. We expect the task force created by this bill to become a new point of contact. It will be up to the Attorney General to determine where to locate the task force and the responsibilities under the Lobbying Disclosure Act within the Justice Department's organizational structure.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I do want to express concern about the process and the development of the execution or the bringing of this bill forward.

I have expressed support of it, it makes some sense--it doesn't, quite frankly, do much--but it should also be noted that there should be a proper way and process by which we move these bills forward.

This bill was introduced on July 15. It didn't show up on the whip notice until late last night. This morning, in a very bipartisan way-- and I thank both sides for working together with the staff--but we have a copy of this bill that came across at 12:15; it is now just after 2 o'clock.

The title of the bill, as read, talks about a fee that would be imposed, a penalty that would be imposed. My understanding is--and I'm happy to yield to the gentleman who is managing this bill to help talk about this--but the title of the bill talked about a new fee and penalty, but I don't think there's fees and penalties even in the bill.

There was no hearing, there was no subcommittee work, there was no committee work on this.

I would be happy to yield to the gentleman if he can help clarify any of those points.

Reclaiming my time, the annual fee, I guess, was going to be $50. To impose a penalty of $500 for failure to file timely reports--these lobbyists walk around with $5,000 bills in their pockets. I would like to see, if we had time to discuss this in committee, a $500 penalty. They get that in a half hour's work. That isn't much of an incentive for them to file in a timely manner.

The bigger, broader point, Mr. Speaker, is these are the types of discussions that really should happen in the subcommittee and in the committee, the timing of these issues, why we would make this change.

Mr. Speaker, I would just make a further point on H.R. 5751. While it moves the structure slightly and gives more flexibility to the Attorney General, obviously we want to see these laws and the compliance fulfilled as much as possible. If this will in any way help the Attorney General in doing so, so be it; we're happy to support this bill.

I still must reiterate that the speed in which this bill was offered, the lack of opportunity for members within the Judiciary Committee to properly debate this, vet this, the fact that we were still dealing back and forth with some staff--and, again, I appreciate the bipartisan way in which it was done, but at the same time, these are the types of things that get vetted and ferreted out with better discussion and review. I think we could have made it stronger, quite frankly. We could have added some real teeth to it, that's unfortunate, but nevertheless, we do urge its passage.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Will the gentlewoman yield for a question?

Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, my question is about the fees. Originally, the title said there was going to be a fee and that there was going to be a penalty. And suddenly, why did those come out? If you want accountability, why would you take out the penalty?

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of legislation I introduced, H.R. 5751, the Lobbying Disclosure Enhancement Act, to help bring accountability to the way lobbyists do business in Washington.

Back home, many people tell us that Washington is broken, that we need to end politics as usual. Well, one of the ways we tried to do this is to rein in lobbyists through the disclosure filings that they are required to file, and it is amazing how difficult it is to even make that happen.

H.R. 5751 would create a task force to help investigate and prosecute violations of the Lobbying Disclosure Act. If there is not some kind of push to enforce, then frequently people fall into noncompliance and they don't take us seriously. Well, it's time for us to be taken seriously on this question.

Mandated by the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007, a recent GAO study found the need for more transparency and accountability for special interest influence in government. Specifically, the GAO found that since 1996, the Secretary of the Senate has referred 8,281 potential violations of lobbying disclosure rules to the DOJ. About 4,400 of those referrals occurred in 2009 alone. The Office of the Clerk has referred an aggregate of 760 potential noncompliant registrants to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. And for 9 years, at least one organization reported lobbying the same 16 outdated--and mostly dead--pieces of legislation it initially reported in 1999 and 2000.

These statistics show a growing trend of mistakes and noncompliance that can't be ignored by this body. We have promised the American people more transparency and accountability, and my bill will help deliver on that promise.

I yield to the gentleman from Utah.

I thank the gentleman for his question.

I fully would have supported a fee such as was included in the original bill, but we were informed by the Clerk of the House that they could not administer such a fee. So I would be more than happy if you and others in Judiciary would take up that question and return that question when we come back in September.

But reclaiming my time, I came here to change the ``politics as usual'' approach and to help bring reform.

The Attorney General is given the responsibility to report back to Congress with policy recommendations about how best to improve the Lobbying Disclosure Act going forward and about how to make the processing and enforcement seem self-funded. I believe that the taxpayers should not have to

shoulder the heavy burden of playing watchdog to this industry and that the creation of a self-sustaining system could be possible.

My legislation changes the current disclosure rule that previously prevented the Department of Justice from publishing the name and firm of anyone in violation of the Lobbying Disclosure Act. We will now know the names of the lobbyists who continue to file late or to file incorrect information. This change reminded me of a phrase I heard recently: ``What you can't get through altruism, you must get through shame.''

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Conyers and the Judiciary Committee staff, who worked with me on this bill, as well as the majority leader for giving me the opportunity to speak to this bill this afternoon on the floor.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5751) to amend the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 to require registrants to pay an annual fee of $50, to impose a penalty of $500 for failure to file timely reports required by that Act, to provide for the use of the funds from such fees and penalties for reviewing and auditing filings by registrants, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, the Lobbying Disclosure Enhancement Act makes several straightforward, commonsense amendments to the enforcement provisions of the Lobbying Disclosure Act.

First, this bill establishes a task force specifically dedicated to the enforcement of our lobbying laws. Although the newspapers are full of stories about lobbyists who file late, inaccurate, and incomplete reports, there has not yet been a single significant enforcement action.

We believe that an institutional change is in order. The task force will receive complaints from the Clerk of the House, investigate these cases, and enforce the disclosure laws to the fullest extent.

Second, this bill asks the Department of Justice to make recommendations to the Congress for additional improvements to the enforcement of lobbying disclosure laws. The ethics reform legislation we passed last Congress was an important step in bringing transparency and accountability to lobbying disclosure, but much more

can and should be done. We look forward to working with Attorney General Holder to improve on the current system.

Third, the bill amends the Lobbying Disclosure Act to require the Attorney General to publish the names of lobbyists and lobbying firms who are sanctioned under the law. Just as we expect the Department of Justice to enforce the LDA, this bill will require the Department to be transparent about the results of their investigations and prosecutions.

I would like to thank the sponsor of the bill, the gentlelady from Ohio (Ms. Kilroy), for her steadfast leadership on this important issue. I urge my colleagues to support the legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Yes, there are fees in the title of the bill; however, in working with the minority, the bill was amended and the fees were taken out. The title did not change because of the amendments, but that's why the fees are not there because we were accommodating the minority side of the aisle.

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time remains on this side?

Mr. Speaker, to close for our side, I yield the balance of my time to the sponsor of the bill, the gentlelady from Ohio (Ms. Kilroy).

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.