October 6, 1975
Page 31774
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I wish to join in support of the proposal to increase public disclosure of Federal lobbying activities which the distinguished senior Senator from Connecticut and chairman of the Committee on Government Operations has offered today.
For several years, the Senate Committee on Government Operations and other committees in the House have initiated efforts to strengthen the existing Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act.
In July, Senator JAVITS and I joined in introduction of a proposal which would have improved existing law by extending its coverage to a greater number of those people who are actively engaged in lobbying but who are not now required to report their activities. The proposal offered today is similar in many respects.
A major weakness in the present law is the lack of authority to enforce its provisions and to investigate violations. Our proposal would establish that authority in the General Accounting Office and I am pleased to note that the measure offered today adopts that procedure.
Finally, our measure would not impose lobby registration requirements on those individuals who petition their Government in their own behalf or organizations who contact their own representatives in Congress for assistance.
It is essential that any lobby legislation adopted by the Congress not only open up the processes of government to the people but that it also foster, and not inhibit, the first amendment rights of each citizen to petition his Government for a redress of grievances. While we may not have yet reached the ideal balance between those competing interests, I am encouraged by the direction of this proposal and hope that in the next few weeks we can invite the studied opinion of constitutional scholars on this critical issue.
It is important that the Committee on Government Operations and the Senate act in the near future on proposals to change the present law or we may again pass through another Congress without achieving long-needed lobby reforms.
The existing act is an invitation to avoidance and its limited coverage encourages public suspicion about lobbying activities — even about the vital services offered by many organizations which provide an important flow of information to the Congress.
It is time that we substitute that law with one which can better inform Americans about the way the legislative process works and which will encourage them to take a more active role in presenting their views to their representatives.