Governor wins some, loses some on ethics reform

Apparent death of controversial bills no surprise

AUSTIN — It appears Gov. Greg Abbott will get half of the “ethics reform” package that he wanted the Legislature to pass, key lawmakers said Monday.

Two of the bills likely died late Sunday when a deadline passed for a powerful House committee that sets the daily agenda. Those bills prevented lobbyists from concealing which legislators they wine and dine and made it a crime for ex-legislators who become lobbyists to pass on “official information” for two years after they leave office. That provision replaced an outright ban on lawmakers from becoming lobbyists for a two-year legislative cycle after leaving office.

State Rep. Todd Hunter, the Corpus Christi Republican who is chairman of the House Calendars Committee, confirmed that SB 502 and SB 504 did not have enough support on the panel.

A bill to prohibit anyone who is required to register as a state government lobbyist from running for, being appointed to or holding public office died weeks ago in the House General Investigating & Ethics Committee.

Sunday night, the Senate sent Abbott a bill to prohibit ex-lawmakers who become lobbyists from using their campaign accounts to make political contributions. The two other bills that are expected to get approval from both chambers require elected officials to disclose their government contracts, bond counsel work and legal referral fees; and revoke pensions of elected officials convicted of felonies related to their office.

Carol Birch, legislative counsel for Public Citizen, a liberal-leaning government watchdog group, said legislators “can’t get away with calling this major ethics reform.” An Abbott spokesman didn’t return requests for comment.

The Senate passed a comprehensive ethics bill in early February, one week after Abbott made it one of his priority items in his State of the State address. Anticipating attempts to kill the legislation, lawmak-

ers also filed six separate “single-shot bills” with the same provisions.

‘Dark money’ bill

Two years ago, a similar ethics reform bill died when the House and Senate clashed over whether to require political nonprofit groups to disclose their largest political donors — contributions commonly referred to as “dark money.” That has not been an issue this session.

State Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, was the House’s lead sponsor this session on four of the six ethics bills.

Asked if the two bills — SB 502 and SB 504 — were dead, he replied: “I think that’s probably right.” Geren also cast doubt on whether they could be revived through amendments to the three ethics bills heading to Abbott for his signature.

“All of those were carefully crafted to be singleshot bills so they couldn’t get loaded up, so it’s going to be difficult to make any amendments to them other than changing the effective date,” he said.

The Senate voted 30-0 on Monday to approve HB 501, which requires elected officials to disclose government contracts that they, their spouse or dependent children hold. That bill must return to the House for either agreement with Senate amendments or appointment of a conference committee to resolve the chambers’ different versions.

SB 502 and SB 504 were the most controversial aspects of Abbott’s ethics overhaul package, and their apparent death was not a major surprise.

Currently, lobbyists are required to fill out a report filed with the state Ethics Commission when they spend more than $114 per day on a legislator or state official. To avoid disclosure, lobbyists will take two fellow lobbyists to dinner, for example, and the lawmaker’s tab is divided by three credit cards so it’s not more than $114.

‘A lot of tricks’

SB 502 lowered the threshold to $57 a day, and lobbyists who split checks each would be required to disclose how much they spent if the total tab is above that amount.

SB 504 originally required legislators to wait a full legislative session before they could lobby. Currently, there is no “cooling off period.” Geren amended the bill to make it a crime for ex-legislators to pass on “official information” for two years after they leave office.

Craig McDonald, director of the liberal-leaning watchdog group Texans for Public Justice, said he doesn’t consider bills officially dead until the Legislature adjourns on May 29.

“There’s a lot of tricks the leadership can play in the end. If you had to take an assessment now, I’d have to say the governor so far has been an inadequate first responder to his ethics emergency,” said McDonald.

He referred to Abbott’s announcement last January to make “ethics reform” an emergency item so the Legislature could take swift action.