Appetite for more ethics reform seems to be waning
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But a subcommittee tackling a bunch of new ethics ideas the day after the General Assembly finalized its most sweeping reform in more than a decade, did endorse one bill aimed at shedding light on lobbying activities.
The rest of the ethics bills were sent to a House study committee that Rep. Frank Buck, D-Dowelltown, said was probably a black hole. He said those bills are on “life support.”
Meanwhile, the Senate committee that was to meet and discuss the companion bills to the House measures postponed its meeting until next week.
Buck has sponsored a number of ethics bills dealing with lobbyists and backed the one that did pass muster Tuesday with the House State and Local Government Subcommittee.
But the bill was changed dramatically to match legislation backed by House leadership. Instead of requiring companies to disclose all the money they spend on lobbying, including lobbyist salaries, the new version would limit the disclosures to the amount of money spent directly on entertaining legislators.
Buck reluctantly agreed to the measure, saying he would do anything to get his bill out of committee.
After that, ethics bills dealing with other restrictions on lobbyists, such as getting them off state boards and commissions, and one that would ban lawmakers from voting on measures that would benefit them financially were sent to a study committee that, as of Tuesday, was not scheduled to meet before the end of the session.
Subcommittee chairman Rep. Larry Miller, D-Memphis, said there was “no intention to kill the bills.”
Rep. Ulysses Jones, the Memphis Democrat who chairs the full House State and Local Government Committee, said the ethics reform sent Monday to the governor is more than enough. It would ban officials from holding consulting deals with state contractors and force lawmakers to disclose all their income sources.
“I’m more than satisfied,” he said. “I think we’ve done too much.”
Buck was happy his one lobbyist bill was still alive — and certainly open for many more changes as it works its way through House and Senate committees — but lamented the loss of other bills.
One, also backed by Buck, he said would have closed loopholes in the so-called “cup of coffee” law that was supposed to curtail special interests wining and dining lawmakers.
“Will it ever see the light of day or have a hearing on it?” he asked the committee.
Buck was told that would be up to House leadership.
The outspoken Buck, who has had numerous run-ins with leadership in his party dating back to 2002’s heated debate over a state income tax, was pointed in his criticism, as usual.
“I am still committed to the philosophy that lobby groups that come down here and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars ought to be required to disclose what they spend to influence public policy,” he said. “It’s a fundamental right of democracy, people have a right to know.”
He said lobbyists are “putting monumental pressure on people around here to keep the bill bottled up.”
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On the Net:
Read House Bill 1133 at www.legislature.state.tn.us