FEC Nomination News Miscellany

The Washington Independent has a story on the FEC nomination situation.

BNA’s Money & Politics Report ($) reports, “Congress has returned to Capitol Hill after a Memorial Day recess with questions still hanging over confirmation of President Bush’s nominees to the Federal Election Commission.”

The WSJ has “Harry Reid’s Handshake.”

The Alliance for Justice has “Wall Street Journal Has Selective Memory.”

The Senate’s June calendar.

The Senate’s Executive Calendar.

White House press releases.

UPDATE:  Senate floor shuts down. 

Pennsylvania Lobbying

Pennsylvania lobbyist gift rules are the topic of this editorial at Themorningcall.com. 

[I]n 2006, the commonwealth adopted the Pennsylvania Lobbyist Disclosure Act, a public reporting law. It required a lobbyist’s employer to report gifts worth $250 or more and entertainment (meals, hotels, golf and trips) worth $650 or more to an individual elected official or public employee. It was a decent step forward.

But, it left an easy-to-access loophole. Keep the spending at $249 or $649 and no public disclosure is required. Or, a lobbyist could take several legislators to dinner and spread the spending amount among them, also avoiding the required reporting on what turned out to be a rather big-ticket event.