Congress agrees to disagree on gift rules
From Craig Homan @ Watchdog Blog: In what no longer comes as a surprise, the House ethics committee — contradicted by their colleagues at the Senate ethics committee — have poked another gaping hole in the new ethics rules. The new ethics rules ban gifts of any value from lobbying organizations to lawmakers. Both the House and Senate ethics committees were asked by a lobbying organization to rule on whether that organization may buy tables of seats at a charity event, and then suggest to the sponsors of the event to hand them over as gifts to lawmakers.