House, Senate Craft Ethics Reform Bills

A House committee has unanimously approved a statehouse ethics reform package, while Senate Republicans have unveiled a similar bill of their own.

House Speaker Patrick Bauer (D-South Bend) is spearheading the push to redraw the lines between legislators and lobbyists, following what he says was an unprecedented feeding frenzy of lobbyists in the closing weeks of this year's session.

Bauer's bill would require legislators or executive branch policymakers to observe a one-year "cooling-off period" out of state government before accepting lobbying jobs. The executive branch already has such a rule, but in the form of an executive order from Governor Daniels, not state law.

Several legislators have quit in the middle of their terms in recent years to lobby their former colleagues, including one who resigned just three days after being sworn in for a new term.

Bauer's proposal would also ban conflicts of interest within lobbying firms. He says there have been cases in which different members of the same firm have represented all sides of the same issue.

The bill would halve the threshold for legislators to disclose gifts from lobbyists to $50 from the current $100. And it would ban political contributions from anyone receiving more than $100,000 in state contracts.

Common Cause and other citizen watchdog groups praise the legislation but urge legislators to do more. Common Cause is calling for an outright ban on gifts from lobbyists, public financing of campaigns, and a two-year cooling-off period to match the gap between legislative elections.

The Senate version, authored by Indianapolis Republican Patricia Miller, mirrors Bauer's one-year moratorium and the $50 disclosure limit. It adds a requirement that university officials register as lobbyists, and bans statewide elected officials from using office funds for radio or TV ads.

Bauer says he supports those additions, and would even eliminate the one exception Miller allows to the advertising ban, for public service announcements from the governor's office regarding health or safety. But the speaker says legislators should guard against turning the bill into an "auction" of who can propose the most restrictive requirements.

"If you load it up too much, you're going to kill it," Bauer says.

Source:wibc.com/