Ed Whitfield: “as we debate the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007, I want to commend the members of the Judiciary…”

“as we debate the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007, I want to commend the members of the Judiciary Committee for the tremendous job that they have done, but I did want to ask a couple of questions regarding this legislation because I've not had an opportunity to look at it in its entirety. But title I is referred to as closing the revolving door, and we all understand that that relates to former Members of Congress who leave Congress and become registered lobbyists and represent private interests before the House of Representatives. And then title II is talking about full public disclosure of those people engaged in lobbying. And the question that I would like to ask Chairman Conyers, and maybe Mr. Smith knows as well, but we have a lot of Members of Congress, and last year the Congress passed legislation on the floor, an ethics package that prohibited former Members of Congress who became registered lobbyists from going to the House gym. And so my question is, in this bill, does this bill prohibit a former Member of Congress who is a registered lobbyist from parking in House parking spaces, reserved for Members of Congress and staff? And then if it does not, in title II, do we require a former Member of Congress who is now a registered lobbyist to report that as a benefit that he receives from the taxpayers of the United States? And those would be the two questions that I would appreciate the gentleman answering.”