The Washington Post is reporting in House passes ethics bill:
The House gave final and overwhelming approval today to a landmark bill that would tighten ethics and lobbying rules for Congress, passing it on to a Senate that is under a new ethics cloud after yesterday's FBI raid on Sen. Ted Stevens' (R-Alaska) house. . . .
. . .The new lobbying bill would for the first time require lawmakers to disclose small campaign contributions that are "bundled" into large packages by lobbyists, and it requires lobbyists to detail their own campaign contributions, as well as payments to presidential libraries, inaugural committees and charities controlled by lawmakers.
All earmarks included in bills and conference reports -- and their sponsors -- would have to be identified on the Internet at least 48 hours before votes, and earmarks dropped into final conference reports negotiated by the House and Senate could, for the first time, be voted out of a bill at the last minute.
Secret "holds" in the Senate, which allow a single senator to block action without disclosing his or her tactics, would end. Members of Congress would no longer be allowed to attend lavish convention parties thrown in their honor. Gifts, meals and travel funded by lobbyists would be banned, and travel on corporate jets would be restricted.
"These are big-time fundamental reforms," said Fred Wertheimer, president of the open-government group Democracy 21. . . .
The bill passed in a 411-8 vote.
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