House Democrats back off lobbying reform

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From an article on lobbying reform by Jim Snyder in today's the Hill:

[A]s the House prepares to take up a lobbying reform bill tomorrow, a number of outside groups are disappointed that the strictest measures appear likely to be left to the campaign trail.

“There is great concern as to what is going to be approved on the floor,” Craig Holman of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch said. “It’s starting to look like the House isn’t really serious about lobbying reform.”

The reform package is missing three main components, reformers say: a longer cooling-off period between the transition from lawmaker to lobbyist, new disclosure of grassroots “Astroturf” campaigns, and more information on how much money a lobbyist “bundles” for candidates. None of those three issues survived as part of the main bill.

This is exhibit B in the currently widening gap between Democrats in Congress and reform-oriented folks in the grassroots who helped put them in the majority.

You know what exhibit A is already.

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