Honest Leadership and Open Government Act

Disclosure by Members and staff of employment negotiations

• Prohibits Members from engaging in any agreements or negotiations about future employment until a successor has been selected unless the Member files a statement with the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct; and requires that Members recuse themselves from any matter in which there is a conflict of interest or appearance of a conflict.

Requires senior staff to notify the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct within three days if they engage in negotiations or agreements for future employment or compensation.

• Prohibition on Lobbying Contacts with Spouses who Are Registered Lobbyists

Requires that Members prohibit their staff from having any lobbying contact with the Member's spouse if such individual is a registered lobbyist or is employed or retained by a registered lobbyist to influence legislation.

Posting of travel and financial disclosure reports on the Internet

• Requires that travel by members financed by outside groups be posted on a searchable, sortable and downloadable website by August 1, 2008.
• Requires that Members' financial disclosure forms be posted on a searchable, sortable and downloadable website by August 1, 2008.

Participation in lobbyist-sponsored events during political conventions

• Prohibits Members from attending parties held in their honor at national party conventions if they have been sponsored by lobbyists, unless the Member is the party's presidential or vice presidential nominee.

Procedural reform

• Allows the Senate to delete "dead of night" additions from conference reports (when the new matter was not approved by either House) unless 60 Senators vote in favor of keeping the matter in the conference report.
• Seeks to end secret Senate holds by requiring the Senator placing a hold on a legislative matter or nomination publicly disclose that hold within five days.
• Requires that Senate committees and subcommittees post video recordings, audio recordings or transcript of all public meetings on the Internet.
• Expresses that conference committee processes should be open and transparent.

Congressionally directed spending reform

• Requires that all congressionally directed spending items, limited tax benefits and limited tariff benefits are identified in bills, resolutions, conference reports and managers' statements be identified and posted on the internet at least 48 hours before a vote.
• Requires that Senators certify that they and their immediate family will not financially benefit from a congressionally directed spending item, limited tax benefits and limited tariff that they are seeking.
• Requires that committees, to the greatest extent practicable, disclose in unclassified language the funding level and the name of the sponsor of congressionally directed spending included in classified portions of bills, joint resolutions and conference reports.
• Allows the Senate to delete new directed spending in a conference report (when the new spending was not approved by either House) unless 60 Senators vote in favor of keeping the provision.

Post-employment restrictions

• Prohibits Senators from lobbying Congress for two years after they leave office.
• Prohibits officers and senior employees from lobbying the Senate for one year after they leave Senate employment.

Disclosure by Senators and staff of employment negotiations

• Requires Senators to disclose within three business days any negotiations they engage in to secure future employment before their successor is elected and prohibits them from seeking employment as a registered lobbyist before they leave office.
• Requires senior staff to notify the Ethics Committee within three days of beginning negotiations for future employment and to recuse themselves should employment negotiations create a conflict of interest.

Elimination of floor, parking and gym privileges for former Members who become lobbyists

• Revokes floor privileges and the use of the Members' exercise facilities and parking for former Senators, former Secretaries of the Senate, former Sergeants at Arms of the Senate and former Speakers of the House who are registered lobbyists.

Influencing hiring decisions (K Street Project)

• Prohibits members from influencing hiring decisions of private organizations on the sole basis of partisan political gain.

Ban on gifts from lobbyists and entities that hire lobbyists

• Prohibits Senators and their staff from accepting gifts from registered lobbyists or entities that hire or employ them.
• Requires entertainment and sports tickets to be valued at market rates.

National party conventions

• Prohibits Senators from attending parties held in their honor at national party conventions if they have been sponsored by lobbyists, unless the Senator is the party's presidential or vice presidential nominee.

Restrictions on lobbyist participation in travel

• Prohibits Senators and their staff from accepting private travel from registered lobbyists or the entities that hire them.
• Limits lobbyists from organizing, arranging, requesting or participating in travel by Senators or their staff.
• Allows Senators and their staff, with pre-approval from the Ethics Committee, to accept travel by entities that employ lobbyists if it is necessary to participate in a one-day meeting, speaking engagement, fact-finding trip or similar event.
• Allows Senators and their staff to accept travel provided by 501(c)(3) organizations if the trip has been pre-approved by the Ethics Committee.
• Requires Senators and their staff to disclose the expenses reimbursed by a private entity not later than 30 days after the travel is completed.
• Requires that the Ethics Committee be provided with a written certification that the trip will not be financed, planned, organized, requested or arranged in any part by a registered lobbyist and that the traveler will not be accompanied on any segment of the trip by a registered lobbyist.
• Requires that Senators pay the fair market value (charter rates) for flights on private jets not operated or paid for by an air carrier that is certified by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Attendance at constituent events

• Allows Senators and their staff to accept free attendance at a conference, site visit, dinner or other event in their home state if it is sponsored and attended by a group of constituents, provided that there are no registered lobbyists in attendance, and that the cost of any meal served is less than $50.

Senate privately paid travel public website

• Requires that travel by members financed by outside groups be posted on a searchable website by January 1, 2008.

Lobbying contact with spouses or immediate family members who are registered lobbyists

• Prohibits Senate spouses who are registered lobbyists from engaging in lobbying contacts with any Senate office. It exempts Senate spouses who were serving as registered lobbyists at least one year prior to the most recent election of their spouse to office, or at least one year prior to their marriage to that Member.

Prohibits Senators' immediate family members who are registered lobbyists from engaging in lobbying contacts with their family member's staff.

Mandatory Senate ethics training for Members and staff

• Requires the Ethics Committee to conduct ongoing ethics training and awareness programs for Senators and Senate staff.

Annual reports on ethics enforcement

• Directs the Ethics Committee to issue annual reports listing the number of: alleged violations of Senate rules, alleged violations that were dismissed, alleged violations that led to a preliminary inquiry, alleged violations that resulted in an adjudicatory review, alleged violations that the committee dismissed; and the number of letters of admonition issued and the number of matters resulting in disciplinary sanction.