House Democrats put lobbying reform near the top of their agenda, but their incoming majority leader was one of the biggest recipients of special-interest money.
A new report states that Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, was the “most dependent” on special-interest funding and received the fifth-highest total in lobbying contributions among members of Congress.
According to public financing records, Mr. Hoyer has received $609,836 from lobbyists, $2.46 million from out-of-state donors and $5.67 million in political action committee contributions since 2000.
“Much of the reason he’s at the top of the list is because he’s in leadership,” said Craig Holman, legislative director of Public Citizen, a government watchdog organization that produced the report. “It does not necessarily mean he’ll be reluctant to support lobbying reform.”
Mr. Hoyer’s congressional office was closed for Thanksgiving and was unavailable to comment. But in an interview last week with the liberal Web site Talking Points Memo, Mr. Hoyer was asked if he would support the Democrats’ lobbying-reform agenda.
“One of the first things we’re going to do is adopt lobbying reform,” Mr. Hoyer said. “We are going to adopt rules that make the system of legislation transparent so that we don’t legislate in the dark of night, and the public and other members can see what is being done.”
Mr. Hoyer also said he would support further restrictions on lobbying and legislation aimed at curbing so-called “earmarks,” which are expenditures anonymously attached to larger spending bills.
Some liberal organizations have criticized Mr. Hoyer for his votes on lobbying-related measures. He previously has voted against bills that would place Internet political communications under the same campaign-finance restrictions as regular television and radio ads.
In addition, Mr. Hoyer voted against a measure that would require 527 political organizations, which are currently able to raise unlimited amounts of money, from falling under the same regulations.
“Steny Hoyer realizes that Democrats are in power because Americans are upset with issues of corruption in Congress,” Mr. Holman said. “We fully expect Hoyer to be an ally.”
Public Citizen says it has been actively working with House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi’s office to advocate lobbying-reform legislation. Although Mr. Holman says his organization has received a large degree of cooperation from the California Democrat’s office, his group is not being granted all of its requests, which include a total ban on lobbyist campaign contributions.
Mrs. Pelosi had nominated Rep. John P. Murtha, Pennsylvania Democrat, for the House majority leader position. Mr. Murtha lost that race.
Many analysts say Mr. Murtha’s defeat was a result in part of his own troubles on ethics issues stemming from his involvement as a unindicted co-conspirator in the FBI’s Abscam bribery investigation in the 1970s and ’80s.
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