Examiner Editorial: How influence peddlers evade ethics law

When Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., became speaker of the House in 2007, she promised she would lead “the most honest, most open, most ethical Congress in history.” To that end, House Democrats passed the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act.

In addition to a bunch of silly new rules about what kinds of food could be served at Capitol Hill events hosted by interest groups, the act imposed heavier reporting requirements on lobbyists for every donation they made to federal candidates, officeholders and their affiliated organizations. The new law also extended an existing one-year ban on lawmakers and their staffs from lobbying Congress to two years.