An end tot he free lunch?

• Author: Love, Alice
• Position: Lobbying reform

On a Monday morning last December, as Capitol Hill braced for the implementation of restrictive new gift rules, hundreds of House staffers packed a large Rayburn Building committee room. Ellen Weintraub, counsel to the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, was there to tell them how the rules would work.

"We are here to explain the gift rule and not to praise it," Weintraub began, playing to a crowd of staffers about to lose the few remaining perks of their low-paying, high-pressure jobs. Weintraub confirmed that starting January 1, House members and their staffs would be barred from taking virtually anything of value--whether lunch, a round of golf, or Super Bowl tickets--from anyone. "But there are 23 exceptions to the gift rule," she added quickly, "and that's mainly what we're going to talk about here today."

Both the House and the Senate have been bound for nearly four months by similar versions of gift reform, passed separately in each chamber last year. In theory, the House members and staff are under a near total ban, and senators and staff can receive only gifts worth less than $50 (with a $100 total limit on gifts from any one source). The idea was to stop the most egregious symbols of buying influence: the power lunch, the expensive junket, the "quality time" spent by lobbyists, with public officials.

Judging from the early goings, though, corporate big-wigs and their lobbyist proxies will still have ample opportunity to wine, dine, and fete members of Congress and their staffs--at charity events and political fundraisers, at "widely attended" gatherings, with carefully-designed dining, and on "official" trips. In large part, that's because the House and Senate ethics committees-the sole interpreters and enforcers of the gift rules--are giving the go-ahead and bending over backwards to be accommodating.

In February, for instance, both committees authorized general attendance by members and staff at the free annual "Louisiana Alive!" food and music festival--a kick-off of a three-day Washington Mardi Gras celebration at the Capitol Hilton. Approval was given on the grounds that the event was "widely attended" despite the fact that the party, featuring Cajun chefs, bands, and goodies imported from the Bayou State is paid for with $6,000 contributions from lobbyists and corporations, and has no pretense of being anything other than a chance for congressional and special interest types to share a lavish party. Neither committee...