Lobbying must be strictly controlled.  Lobbyists are already required to register, but reporting requirements are lax. Transparency demands that reports be made readily available to the public on who is lobbying whom and the lobbyist position on legislation.

To provide full transparency both lobbyists and legislators (including the President and Vice-President) must report:

1. Time, date, attendees of meetings and the organizations represented at those meetings.
2. A brief summary of any discussions with legislators or their staffs.
3. What legislation is being supported or opposed.

These reports must be filed electronically each month and made available on the Internet.

Lobbying restrictions required are:

1. Lobbyist cannot donate money or provide any remuneration to legislators, their staff, or their campaigns.  This means any gifts, parties, vacations, etc. are prohibited.
2. Lobbyists cannot write or assist in writing any legislation.
3. Legislators and members of their staff must wait five years after quitting before becoming a lobbyist.

One of the worst periods of leadership in the House of Representatives was during the tenure of Dennis Hastert (R), Speaker of the House, and Tom DeLay (R), House Majority Leader.  During their tenure, from 2003 to 2005, lobbyists wrote most of the legislation produced by the House.  Often there were only a few copies of bills available for review, no amendments were allowed, and the bills were voted on within a few hours of being released with minimal debate.

The revolving door of legislature to lobbyist must be stopped.  Example: The Medicare Modernization Act* (MMA) passed in December, 2003 bans Medicare from negotiating discount drugs prices from pharmaceutical companies. Former Representative W. J. “Billy” Tauzin (R) is credited with adding this provision to the bill.  Costs estimates for the MMA are about $1.2 trillion for 2006 through 2015. According to the Department of Veteran Affairs press release, “Families USA found that Medicare’s prices were much higher than those negotiated by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).  The median price difference for the top 20 drugs was 48.2%.”   Over $578 billion could be saved over 10 years through negotiations with pharmaceutical companies.  Rep. Tauzin left Congress in 2005 to become President and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PRMA), a trade group that supported the MMA.  Tauzin’s salary of 2 million dollars per year was probably worth the extra $578 billion to PRMA.

Bribery disguised as lobbyists’ gifts must be eliminated.  We must change lobbying laws to eliminate the overwhelming influence of special interests on our elected officials.
____
* Also called the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act