William F. Smith: “Madam Chairman, we all deplore unethical conduct by Members of Congress and their staff. Each party has their share of…”

“Madam Chairman, we all deplore unethical conduct by Members of Congress and their staff. Each party has their share of examples. The public wants and deserves clean government, and today we finally bring before the House a bill that seems very familiar. That is because the increased disclosures required in the bill we are addressing today are largely those that were contained in H.R. 4975, which was introduced by Congressman David Dreier in the last Congress and passed the House then. Last year's H.R. 4975 contained all of the following provisions: a requirement to disclose postemployment negotiations with private entities; a prohibition on partisan influences on an outside entity's employment decisions; and increased quarterly electronic filing in a public database of lobbyist campaign contributions linked to Federal Elections Commission filings. The legislation also increased civil and criminal penalties for failure to comply, required disclosure by lobbyists of all past executive branch and congressional employment, and contained a prohibition on lobbyists' violation of House gift ban rules. Similar provisions, of course, are included in the legislation before us today.”