House panel OKs 2 GOP ethics bills

As expected, the House Ethics Committee approved two ethics bills Friday sponsored by a House GOP leader.

Those bills now move to the House floor for further debate.

But Ethics Committee chairman Rep. John Dougall, R-Highland, said it is his intention to hear other ethics bills, sponsored by either Democrats or Republicans, before lawmakers adjourn March 12.

House Democrats were not happy Thursday when they got a look at the Ethics Committee agenda. Even though half a dozen ethics bills have been sent out to the committee, only the two by House Majority Whip Brad Dee, R-Washington Terrace, were set to be voted on.

"All the bills should be heard," said House Minority Leader David Litvack, D-Salt Lake.

Even if other competing ethics bills are heard by the committee, there is no guarantee they will be advanced for a floor vote.

While both Republicans and Democrats on the evenly split 4-4 committee praised the cooperation each side is giving, it would still take one Republican vote to move a Democratic ethics bill.

And clearly the House GOP leaders' two bills that advanced Friday are the ones most of the majority Republicans favor. Democrats could only have been spoilers, and they clearly didn't want to be that Friday.

HB345 would prohibit a former legislator from becoming a contract paid lobbyist for one year after leaving the House or Senate.

However, before the measure passed unanimously, it was revealed that there could be a large loophole in the measure that would allow a former legislator to lobby for a private business, as long as their main business was not lobbying. That would only prevent them from being a contract lobbyist.

Dee and others said the goal of HB345 was to delay for a year a former legislator becoming a contract lobbyist — taking on a bunch of clients just weeks after cleaning out his House or Senate office.

Dee said they wanted to do that without severely harming a person's attempt to work at his profession and provide an income for his family.

House Majority Leader Kevin Garn, R-Layton, also on the committee, said a number of the ethics bills will try to deal with the public perception that something is wrong with the Legislature — and may not actually solve problems that may not really be there.

"We are moving the ball down the field," Garn said of the bills.