In response to Josh’s post earlier I’d like to explain that the Open House Project will happen independently of any sort of lobbying and ethics reform package. The current debate of lobbying and ethics reform, which we have been covering somewhat at the Sunlight Foundation blog, is over the House companion bill to the lobbying and ethics bill passed by the Senate in January. Certainly the House is taking some steps backwards in terms of lobbyist disclosure of bundled contributions and the extension of the cooling off period but these do not relate to the underlying recommendations which we are continuing to push in the House regarding the Open House Project.

I should also note that the House version of the lobbying and ethics bill does in fact have a provision that is in step with the recommendations of the Open House Project. The Sunlight Foundation lobbied hard to get the Speaker’s office and the Judiciary Committee to include a provision providing for the online publication of Member’s personal financial disclosure forms and travel reports. If you read the bill you will find that this provision was included in the final clause of the bill. The Senate also included the online publication of travel reports in their bill but refused to put personal financial disclosures online. So, kudos to the House.

Furthermore, we shouldn’t get so upset over initial press accounts of possible problems in regards to lobbying and ethics reforms. The bill has not even come up for floor debate and there are still over 40 amendments that will be offered that could further strengthen the bill. I can not see the bill passing out of the House in a weaker fashion than it is already in. Ultimately the bill will pass; Clyburn says that he has the votes. The only real worry is what happens in conference where we can have little effect and do not know exactly what is going on.

The most important point is that the Open House Project does not relate to this bill. We will get our recommendations passed, but not along with these reforms. It’s probably a good thing anyways. If we’re looking to hit the low-hanging fruit then we ought to stay out of these kinds of intra-party battles.