May 18, 2006 | Read Time: 2 minutes
The House of Representatives has voted to stiffen the rules for disclosure of donations to charities created or controlled by members of Congress.
However, some lawmakers and charity lobbyists are urging Congress to go a step further, saying that more needs to be done to avoid abuses of charities by politicians and donors who want to influence them.
The House passed the restriction in a package of measures designed to overhaul lobbying of all kinds in the wake of recent scandals involving lawmakers.
The House legislation would require lobbyists to report donations to any “entity that is named for” a member of Congress or “established, financed, maintained, or controlled” by one.
A Senate measure on lobbying contains no provisions affecting charities. The two measures must now be a reconciled by a House-Senate committee.
Influencing Politicians
Congressional and charity watchdogs have complained that lobbyists and others have made gifts to charities controlled by members of Congress to influence legislation, or at least to obtain the opportunity to sit down with lawmakers to argue their case.
Numerous representatives and senators have set up charities or play key roles in nonprofit groups using their family name, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Republican of Tennessee, and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Republican of Texas.
Last month Rep. Alan Mollohan, Democrat of West Virginia, gave up his seat on the House Ethics Committee after a conservative group filed a complaint with the U.S. attorney in Washington suggesting he steered money to nonprofit organizations he helped establish. Mr. Mollohan has denied any wrongdoing.
But some critics say the House proposal does not go far enough in making charitable contributions to lawmakers’ groups public. They argue that all donations to such charities should be disclosed, not just those from lobbyists.
“Other special interests can use contributions to earn valuable face time with the people who make laws and distribute millions and millions of dollars,” said Rick Cohen, executive director of the Committee on Responsive Philanthropy, in Washington. “Simply focusing on lobbyists is missing the larger picture.”
Mr. Cohen said he prefers the approach proposed by Sen. Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana. Mr. Baucus had proposed that donors who give more than $200 to charities controlled by members of Congress, regardless of who made the contribution, be required to disclose their gifts.
When he proposed the measure, Mr. Baucus said in a statement, “Members of Congress and their families should do all the charitable work they can, but there must not be even a hint of impropriety in those efforts.”
He added that his provision was designed to “make sure that organizations meant for good don’t become magnets for unethical behavior.”
Mr. Baucus’s proposal was not considered by the Senate, because the Senate’s leaders decided his proposal was not related to a bill on lobbying.
