ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 1, 1995 TAG: 9512010055
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
On Capitol Hill, they're calling this ``The Last Christmas.''
Each holiday season, lawmakers could anticipate such goodies as wooden barrels full of snacks from RJR Nabisco, bottles of chardonnay from the Securities Industry Association and pewter serving plates from the United Transportation Union.
As of Jan. 1, those gifts will be banned in the House.
The birthday cakes that retail giant Sears sends to every member of Congress? Gone.
The annual trips to the Danny Thompson Open in Sun Valley, Idaho, for three days of golf and a grab bag of clothing and equipment, in the name of charity? Gone, too.
And beginning in the new year, those armies of expensive lobbyists who have worked Capitol Hill so quietly for years will have to disclose who they work for, what they do and how much they are paid.
All of this comes in reaction to public anger and disgust.
The House, pushed by reform-minded freshmen, has banned most gifts; the Senate has limited their value to $50. Both enacted a lobbying disclosure law closing gaping loopholes that prevented change for nearly five decades.
Life is certain to change on Capitol Hill. How much remains to be seen.
Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., a backer of the changes, acknowledges ``tradition dies slowly.''
``We'll have the `old drinking buddy' phenomenon,'' Goss predicted. ``You invite me out for a beer, and that makes us old drinking buddies. Then I can take you out for dinner.
``Influence peddling is not going to change. Those determined to skirt the rules still will.''
Wright Andrews, president of the American League of Lobbyists, said his colleagues already are looking for ways around the new rules.
``Those with the biggest bucks will have even more disproportionate influence,'' Andrews said.
Special interests simply could use their political action committees to schmooze politicians, calling the expenses ``campaign contributions'' instead of lobbying expenses. The line between the two already is blurred.
Still, lawmakers hope they will have mollified a public outraged by TV clips of senators and House members frolicking with lobbyists on all-expense-paid trips to the Caribbean.
One certain victim will be the lunches at Club 116, the members-only haunt where lobbyists secretly hold court just a block from the Hart Senate Office Building, or at other nearby expense-account eateries such as The Monocle or La Brasserie.
``It's going to be a hell of a hit on the restaurants,'' Andrews said.
Andrews predicted that powerful interests will pour even more money into grass-roots lobbying, which isn't regulated under the new disclosure law - such as using phone banks, advertising and computer-generated mail to solicit public calls and letters to Congress.
And he noted that exemptions for gifts from ``personal friends,'' or for ``fact-finding'' trips to sunny destinations still can occur.
Reform advocates welcomed the changes but said more needs to be done.
Other lawmakers believe Congress has gone too far.
``It means members aren't going to be able to have a hot dog with somebody,'' groused Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., who made no secret of his support for charity golf tournaments. ``It's going to cut off access with constituents.''
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by staff: On the house. color.by CNB