[T]he Vermont House gave overwhelming approval Wednesday to a measure that would prohibit lawmakers from accepting money from lobbyists during the legislative session.
Reps. Kurt Wright, R-Burlington, and Patti Komline, R-Dorset, sponsored an amendment that they said is designed to stop lawmakers from receiving lobbyist contributions while the Legislature is in session. The amendment is in response to lobbyist-sponsored events often held while lawmakers are in session.
The representatives took language from the now-defunct H.81 and worked with the Attorney General’s Office, the Secretary of State’s Office, and several other stakeholders to tack the language onto S.93.
The measure passed 137-1. Rep. Steve Beyor, R-Highgate Springs, was the only “no.” The underlying bill will now go to the Senate, which can either approve the changes or call for a committee of conference.
The lobbyist disclosure bill previously passed the Senate and the House Government Operations Committee with provisions that would require lobbyists to make monthly expenditure reports to the secretary of state while the Legislature is in session.
Lobbyists would have to file reports with the secretary of state within 48 hours of running mass media campaigns and disclose themselves as funders in a conspicuous place within each advertisement. If signed into law, it would be one of the strictest lobbyist disclosure laws in the country.
The amendment passed Wednesday extends the original bill to prohibit “lobbyists, lobbying firms, and lobbyist employers from contributing to legislative leadership political committees” while the Legislature is in session during a biennium.
In this biennium, for example, contributions could not be made until after the closing of next year’s session in May of 2016.
Wright and Komline said their amendment is designed to keep lawmakers from holding fundraising events with lobbyists while laws are still being made. They said most of the events in question happen across the street from the Statehouse at the Capitol Plaza Hotel.
The amendment contains several more provisions outlining technical language and requirements for PACs to register with the secretary of state. Wright said lawmakers worked with the Legislative Council to make the law very “tight” so that it would not be deemed unconstitutional.
“Up until the last day or two, this wasn’t happening,” Wright said. “Frankly, yesterday I would’ve been shocked [if the amendment had passed]. Clearly there was a strategic decision made for it not to be ruled not germane.”
The law allows contributions to “legislative leadership political action committees” made when a Legislature is not in session.
Wright said seeing events during the legislative session where lawmakers receive campaign contributions from lobbyists “feels unseemly” to everyone involved. “I don’t think it’s partisan in the sense that both sides do it,” he said.
Paul Burns, a lobbyist for the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, said his group supports the “concept” of the amendment. Burns called the Wright-Komline amendment a “reasonable” extension of existing laws.
Sens. Michael Sirotkin, D-Chittenden, Kevin Mullin, R-Rutland, Dick Sears, D-Bennington, and David Zuckerman, P/D-Chittenden, sponsored a similar amendment when S.93 was being taken up in March.
That measure failed 19-6 in a roll call vote. As an alternative, Mullin suggested party leadership in both chambers establish their own rules to prohibit lawmakers from going to such events with lobbyists.
