Who better to bundle

Regulations intended to shed light on bundling by lobbyists are coming up short. According to an Associated Press review published last week, which compared invitations to fund-raisers hosted by lobbyists and campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission from March 19 through June, lawmakers have yet to disclose funds they raised at 195 events.
Although the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act requiring lawmakers to report cash “bundled” by lobbyists went into effect in March of this year, Oonly about two-dozen lawmakers between then and June have reported funds raised by lobbyists, the AP found, even though the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act requiring lawmakers to report cash “bundled” by lobbyists went into effect in March of this year. What can a lobbyist do to escape disclosure? Don’t touch the money, don’t take credit, raise less than $16,000 (the threshold for reporting, which does not include contributions from the lobbyist and his/her spouse) or work as an in-house lobbyist for a business, union or trade association and have your employer officially sponsor the event. HLOGA was passed in 2007 in response to the Jack Abramoff scandal, but the AP concludes that “the circumstances under which a member of Congress is legally bound to disclose a lobbyist’s fund-raising are so narrow that, had the law been in effect during Abramoff’s lobbying days, it wouldn’t have exposed much, if any, of his congressional fundraising money trail.” The Hill reported a similar story this week.
From The Capital Eye Blog