Honest Leadership and Open Government Act - Details of The Bill

Details of The Bill

Closing the revolving door

• Prohibits Senators from gaining undue lobbying access by increasing the “cooling off” period for Senators from one to two years before they can lobby Congress.
• Prohibits Cabinet Secretaries and other very senior executive personnel from lobbying the department or agency in which they worked for two years after they leave their position.
• Prohibits senior Senate staff and Senate officers from lobbying contacts with the entire Senate for one year, instead of just their former employing office.
• Prohibits senior House staff from lobbying their former office or Committee for one year after they leave House employment.
• Requires that executive and legislative branch employees who leave government positions and seek to lobby on behalf of Indian tribes face the same revolving door provisions as others. It exempts those who serve as elected or appointed officials of Indian tribes.

Ending the “K Street Project”

• Prohibits Members and their staff from influencing hiring decisions of private organizations on the sole basis of partisan political gain. Subjects those who violate this provision to a fine and imprisonment for up to 15 years.

Prohibiting gifts by lobbyists

• Prohibits lobbyists from providing gifts or travel to Members of Congress with knowledge that the gift or travel is in violation of House or Senate Rules.

Full public disclosure of lobbying activity

• Requires lobbyist disclosure filings to be filed twice as often, by decreasing the time between filing from semi-annual to quarterly.
• Requires lobbyist disclosures in both the Senate and House to be filed electronically and requires creation of a public searchable Internet database of such information.
• Increases civil penalty for knowing and willful violations of the Lobby Disclosure Act from $50,000 to $200,000 and imposes a criminal penalty of up to five years for knowing and corrupt failure to comply with the Act.
• Requires the Government Accountability Office to audit annually lobbyist compliance with disclosure rules.
• Requires lobbyists to certify they have not given gifts or travel that would violate Senate or House rules.
• Requires the disclosure of businesses or organizations that contribute more than $5,000 and actively participate in lobbying activities by certain coalitions and associations.

New transparency for lobbyist political donations, bundling and other financial contributions

• Requires disclosure to the Federal Election Commission when lobbyists bundle over $15,000 semiannually in campaign contributions for any federal elected official, candidate (including Senate, House and Presidential), or leadership PAC.
• Requires lobbyists to disclose to the Secretary of the Senate and the House Clerk their campaign contributions and payments to Presidential libraries, Inaugural Committees or entities controlled by, named for or honoring Members of Congress.

Congressional pension accountability

• Denies Congressional retirement benefits to Members of Congress who are convicted of bribery, perjury, conspiracy or other related crimes in the course of carrying out their official duties as a Member of Congress.

Prohibited use of private aircraft

• Requires that candidates, other than those running for a seat in the House, pay the fair market value of airfare (charter rates) when using non-commercial jets to travel. (This affects senate, presidential and vice-presidential candidates)
• Requires candidates for the House to comply with rule XXIII (15), which prohibits use of non-commercial aircraft.

Toughening penalties for falsifying financial disclosure forms

• Increases the penalty for Members of Congress, Senior Staff and Senior Executive officials for falsifying or failing to report financial disclosure forms from $10,000 to $50,000 and establishes criminal penalties of up to one year of imprisonment.