House to debate GOP bills on ethics

The Utah House is ready to move on ethics reform legislation, but there appears to still be a difference over whether minority Democrats' efforts will move forward or be supplanted by the majority Republicans' desires.

"We hope all of our bills will come out" of a unique Ethics Committee meeting scheduled for Friday and be debated on the House floor, said House Minority Leader David Litvack, D-Salt Lake.

But House Majority Leader Kevin Garn, R-Layton, a member of the Ethics Committee who is leading the Republican effort on ethics in the House, said that two "consensus" bills, sponsored by Republicans, will come out of the committee for House floor debate.

Democrats' bills will be held. In fact, only HB345 and HB346, by House Majority Whip Brad Dee, R-Washington Terrace, (also an Ethics Committee member) are on the committee's agenda.

"We've worked very closely with the Democrats," said Garn, the sponsor of the first lobbyist disclosure law in the early 1990s.

Indeed, GOP House leaders are taking a chance. Instead of sending the ethics bills to a House standing committee with the traditional partisan makeup — two-thirds Republicans, one-third Democrats — the bills go to the Ethics Committee split 4-4 Republicans and Democrats.

Since it takes a majority vote to pass a bill from committee to the floor, if the Democrats voted as a bloc, the bills would fail, and ethics reform would stall. But Garn said Democrats on the committee have agreed to let the two "consensus" GOP bills out.

"There is an implied agreement" that the consensus bills will not be amended on the floor of the House or Senate and will be passed in the form that GOP House and Senate leaders, representing their majority caucuses, have agreed upon, Garn said.

"We have agreement on our two bills," Garn said. And he hopes they can move through the House in an orderly fashion, although "you never know when you have 75 people."

Overall, the bills would prohibit a retired legislator from becoming a paid lobbyist for one year after leaving office; name more legislators who take lobbyist gifts; stop retired legislators from giving their leftover campaign money to themselves; and disclose campaign contributions in a more timely manner just before a legislative election.

The ethics ideas have been greatly watered down since last fall, when legislative conduct was part of the elections.