The edict from John Diehl, Speaker of the House for the Missouri state legislature, came after uproar over a report that two House committees were holding meetings at Jefferson City (Mo.) Country Club, with meals sponsored by lobbying groups.
Rep. John Diehl, Speaker of the House for the Missouri state legislature, announced on January 28 that House committees would no longer be allowed to hold their meetings at restaurants, country clubs and other venues away from the state Capitol in Jefferson City, the St. Louis (Mo.) Post-Dispatch reported.
The edict came a day after the Post-Dispatch and other media outlets reported that the House Telecommunications Committee held a meeting on January 27 at the Jefferson City Country Club, where the lawmakers heard a presentation and ate a meal provided by the Missouri Telecommunications Industry Association that included sea bass, steak and chicken.
A similar meeting of the House Utility Infrastructure Committee was scheduled for January 28 at the same country club, but Diehl told The Associated Press that it would instead be held at the Capitol, without a lobbyist-supplied meal.
Missouri is the only state in the country that limits neither lobbyist activities nor campaign contributions, the Post-Dispatch reported. Records have shown that lobbyists lavish the state’s legislators with close to $1 million annually in meals, sports tickets, junkets and other perks.
Diehl is a Republican, and his party currently controls both chambers of the Missouri Legislature. At a news conference regarding Diehl’s decision, House Minority Leader Jake Hummel, D-St. Louis, said Democrats had not attended the January 27 country club dinner, and were glad the off-site hearings had been halted.
“I think the people’s business should be done in the people’s house,” he said.
Rep. Jeremy LaFaver, D-Kansas City, said he would file a bill banning the practice of holding legislative hearings outside the Capitol, the Post-Dispatch reported. But his legislation would still allow committees to eat meals in the Capitol courtesy of lobbyists, while committees consider those lobbyists’ bills.
The Democratic Caucus had taken no position on banning lobbyist gifts altogether, Hummel said, but he added that he would personally support a ban. When legislators accept food and other gifts from special interests, it erodes public trust in the legislative process, he said.
The Missouri Democratic Party issued a statement decrying the practice of accepting “meal orders and extravagant gifts from the very interests they are supposed to be regulating,” the Post-Dispatch reported.
“It shouldn’t take statewide media attention and public outcry to end such a plainly ludicrous practice,” the statement said.
Diehl acknowledged that he had promised on a radio show in May 2014 to eliminate “issue development committees,” which critics contended were established simply to hold lavish dinners. Those committees were eliminated under the rules Diehl promulgated when he became speaker in January, the Post-Dispatch reported.
The next step, Diehl said after issuing his edict, would be to develop a policy on so-called “standing” committees. Republican leaders had “pretty well reached a conclusion” to ban off-site dinners when “a couple members scheduled” the country club meetings, Diehl said. “And what happened? I put a stop to it,” he added.
It almost sounded like political satire: state legislators holding an official committee meeting at an exclusive country club, so industry lobbyists could treat them to sea bass and steaks as they lobbied.
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