Senate challenges House on ethics reform

In-depth coverage

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has covered the push for ethics reform every step of the way with investigative reporting looking into how our public officials interact with lobbyists, where the system fails and how other states have done it better. As the Legislature wrestles with how to overhaul the system, the AJC will continue to provide in-depth coverage you will not find anywhere else.

The differences

The Senate unveiled major revisions Thursday to House Bill 142, House Speaker David Ralston’s effort to limit lobbying gifts to public officials. The bill heads Friday to the Senate for a vote, but faces an uncertain future back in the House. Here’s a look at the differences in the approaches.

On individual spending:

• House: Banned
• Senate: Subject to a $100 cap per instance or less.*

On group spending:

• House: Lobbyists can spend unlimited amounts on committees, caucuses and other recognized groups.
• Senate: Allowed but limited to $100 per official.

On football tickets, golf and other recreational gifts:

• House: Banned with limited exceptions.
• Senate: Allowed but limited to $100 value.

On travel:

• House: Allowed with limitations. Must be related to "official duties." Cannot include airfare, travel expenses for spouse or recreational costs.
• Senate: Allowed with limitations. Must be within the U.S.; must be within "official duties." Lobbyists cannot pay for spouse or staff expenses.

On lobbyist registration:

• House: Expands registration to unpaid advocates representing an organization on a legislative matter for at least five days. Removes all costs for registration.
• Senate: Makes virtually no change to existing law. Volunteers do not need to register.

NOTE: *The Senate version of the bill requires public bodies to adopt public rules setting a cap of no more than $100 on gifts from lobbyists. If no rule is adopted, an automatic ban on gifts is applied.

With time running out, the Georgia Senate Thursday raised the stakes on a push for lobbying reform across the state, making substantial changes to a bill that overwhelmingly passed the House last month.

But House Speaker David Ralston said he believed the Senate has “diluted” his bill, House Bill 142, which banned most gifts from lobbyists to individual lawmakers. The Senate provision exchanges that for a $100 cap, and would eliminate most of the exemptions in Ralston’s plan allowing unlimited spending on groups of officials.

The Senate version also strips from HB 142 an expanded lobbyist registration requirement favored by the speaker that would have affected unpaid advocates. Besides addressing loopholes, that’s one of the elements that is drawing cheers from ethics supporters, who largely back the Senate version of the bill.

William Perry, executive director of Common Cause Georgia, said the Senate revision is “about 90 percent” of what he and other advocates want.

“We’ll keep pushing for 100 percent until the bill is passed,” he said. “For the most part, it is a pretty strong improvement.”

The Senate is expected to vote on the bill Friday, sending the bill back to the House and leaving just a few short days for lawmakers to find common ground to limit lobbyist influence under the Gold Dome. The last day of the session is expected to be next Thursday.

“The thing I’m most concerned about is the clock is becoming a factor here,” said Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, echoing grousing among House members that the Senate did not move quickly enough. “It doesn’t leave a lot of time for us to look at these things. This is not an issue that popped on the radar on Jan. 13. It’s been out there.”

The Senate passed its gift cap rule on the first day of the session. Ralston has steadfastly opposed a gift cap as gimmicky and has openly mocked the Senate rule. While he said he needed to read the changes thoroughly, Ralston showed no signs of softening that stance Thursday.

“They seem determined to want to have lobbyists spend money on them,” he said of the Senate. “I haven’t seen a cap that works. I don’t know if this one works.”

The Senate hasn’t thrown out the idea of a ban. The bill now requires every public body — from a local school board on up — to draft a policy setting a limit no greater than $100 on lobbyists’ gifts or accept a complete ban. That, senators reasoned, would allow representatives to vote for the bill and accept a “true” ban on gifts by simply not setting up a policy. The Senate already has a rule with a $100 cap on gifts to its own members.

“If they don’t wish to develop their own ethics policy, then they can have their ban,” said Senate President Pro Tem David Shafer, R-Duluth.

Shafer credited the Senate rule with reducing lobbyist spending by as much as a third this year.

“I believe our current policy is working. It is driving lobbyist spending out of the political system,” he said.

The revisions to the bill eliminate loopholes for committees, caucuses and delegations so that they, too, must fall at least within the $100-per-official cap. Only events to which the entire General Assembly is invited, like the annual Wild Hog Supper, would be exempt.

It also rejects Ralston’s contention that unpaid advocates should register as lobbyists, if they come to the Capitol more than five days annually on behalf of an organization and press for legislative action. That did not sit well with the speaker, who has claimed the provision answers a nagging problem at the Capitol of pro bono advocates acting as unregistered lobbyists for various causes.

“The Senate apparently doesn’t see that as a problem,” he said. “We took a lot different approach, and I haven’t changed my mind about that.”

Jet Toney, chairman of the Georgia Professional Lobbyists Association, said unregistered lobbyists is his group’s top issue.

“If you meet regularly with an elected official on behalf of an organization, you are conducting lobbyist activities,” he said. “Citizens should demand the registration of any person who is regularly advocating on behalf of an organization or business.”

Advocates for reform (some of whom would be required to register as lobbyists under Ralston’s proposal) have rejected the idea as a “tax” on speech, even though the House lately advocated removing all costs for registering.

The Senate proposal also bans foreign travel for lawmakers, especially notable given ethics advocates’ outrage over a $17,000 lobbyist-funded trip to Europe that Ralston took with family and staff members in 2010. The proposal limits domestic travel to “official duties” and bars lobbyists from paying for spouses, family members or staff who tag along on a trip.

“We heard from many, many groups from around the state, and the one thing we heard loud and clear was that we need to get rid of the loopholes,” said Sen. Cecil Staton, R-Macon. “In this bill, we are taking that seriously.”

The Senate changes reintroduce some goodies — like golf outings and football tickets — expressly forbidden in the House version, as long as their value does not exceed $100.