Draining the 'Swamp' Is Not So Easy

She continued: "So many concerns raised by the Abramoff scandals were enforcement issues. There is no change to that here."

The key driver behind the bundling disclosure rules was Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the new chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Van Hollen, charged with raising money and consciousness for the next election cycle, calls the new rules "vital" for showing voters that Democrats are serious about cleaning up Washington.

Sloan and others noted that while Democrats trumpeted the ethics bill last week, they were largely silent about a key part of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's promise to "drain the swamp" with a revamped ethics enforcement body.

In January, Pelosi (D-Calif.) appointed a task force to study and develop recommendations for improving ethics oversight in the House. But Rep. Michael E. Capuano (D-Mass.), chairman of the task force, says the group has "as many opinions as members." An announcement of the group's findings was due May 1, but Congress went home without any further word.

To end a Republican-led blocking of the bill in the Senate last week, provisions were watered down. The reporting threshold for bundled contributions was raised from $5,000, reportable quarterly, to $15,000, to be disclosed twice a year. Earmark disclosure rules slipped a bit, too. Senate rules prohibiting lawmakers from sponsoring earmarks that financially benefit them or their immediate family were changed to bar pet projects that "principally" benefit lawmakers -- a change that Holman said was based on conflict-of-interest standards but others criticized as narrowing the rule.

The earmarks section of the bill "went from six to 11 pages and got weaker," said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. Ellis pointed to a key provision on using earmarks to influence votes. Just two months ago, Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, was taken to task by Republicans for telling Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), "You will not get any earmarks, now and forever," because Rogers had criticized one of Murtha's pet projects.

But the provision that would prevent lawmakers from using earmarks to reward or punish voting behavior, Ellis said, has "disappeared."

The new rules also target corporate jet travel. In the House, travel on private planes is banned unless the lawmaker owns an interest in the plane. Senators would be required to pay for corporate jet travel at charter rates, which could run tens of thousands of dollars per trip.

The ban is aimed at lobbyist-sponsored junkets, such as Abramoff's infamous European golf trips. But some say it could have unintended consequences for frequent-flier presidential candidates and lawmakers considering travel to unglamorous but educational locales, who may find complying with the new rules not worth the trouble.

"This drives up the cost of campaigning and how much time people have to spend raising money," said Cleta Mitchell, a lobbying lawyer at Foley & Lardner and a frequent critic of the new ethics laws. "It also means that members of the House and Senate will be moving closer and closer to being hermetically sealed in the Capitol and have as little interaction as possible with anyone outside that rarified environment."