The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007

This is surely the best thing the Democrats have accomplished all year. From Adam B @ Daily Kos:

The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 is numbered "S. 1" in the books -- it was the first bill introduced in the Senate under Majority Leader Reid, marking Democrats' clear intent to clean up the Republican culture of corruption in Washington.

Yesterday, after all the hullabaloo and fooferaw, it was signed into law. Here's some highlights:

• Senators will no longer be able to take gifts or junkets from lobbyists.
• Lobbyists will be required to report their activities quarterly to the House clerk and Senate secretary. (Now, just semi-annually.) And these reports must be filed electronically (including lobbying by representatives of foreign governments) -- which make them easier for us to search and analyze.
• Senate spouses will be banned from the lobbying business, unless they were lobbyists before their spouse’s most recent election or before they married a senator.
• Senators and their top aides will have to notify the Ethics Committee within three days when they begin negotiating new jobs.
• The K Street Project is dead:

Whoever, being a Senator or Representative in, or a Delegate or Resident Commissioner to, the Congress or an employee of either House of Congress, with the intent to influence, solely on the basis of partisan political affiliation, an employment decision or employment practice of any private entity--
(1) takes or withholds, or offers or threatens to take or withhold, an official act, or
(2) influences, or offers or threatens to influence, the official act of another,

shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than 15 years, or both, and may be disqualified from holding any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.

• Earmark sponsors must be listed in appropriations committee reports. And Senators will be able to attack earmarks on the floor with a point of order triggering an hour of debate, and it will take a three-fifths majority vote to retain the provision.
• "Dead of night" provisions can also be challenged with a point of order, and unless a three-fifths majority wants to keep such a provision, the offending language will be removed.
• New restrictions on free travel would ban many trips but allow senators to enjoy one-day journeys at others’ expense. (Also still legal: trips financed by nonprofits and universities.)
• Say goodbye to infinite, anonymous holds. Senators will still be able to anonymously block a request for unanimous consent, but only for six days. After that, the senator’s name would be disclosed unless the objection was withdrawn.
• Slow down the revolving door -- after Dec. 31, senators, top aides and top administration officials would have to wait two years after leaving office before lobbying Congress.
• When former members of the House or Senate begin to lobby, they will lose their access to their former chamber’s floor and gym.
• The FEC will be drafting new regulations requiring campaign committees to report bundled contributions from lobbyists and their political committees that total at least $15,000 during any six-month period. (The next step: disclosure by all bundlers.)
• If a lobbyist (or a lobbyist's client) is throwing a big soirée at your party's convention ... you can't go, unless you're the nominee.

Full text is here. We said we were going to clean up Capitol Hill. We did.