Sponsors (2)
The bill tightens ethics and fiscal controls—restricting post-service lobbying, curbing premium travel, limiting former-Member privileges, and ending automatic pay raises—to increase transparency and restraint in Congress, but it also reduces income and access for former officials, risks chilling legitimate communications, may create hardships for staff with medical/security needs, and could politicize pay and waiver decisions.
Taxpayers and the public: the bill bars former Members from lobbying their former colleagues and creates criminal penalties for violations, reducing undue influence, conflicts of interest, and improving public trust in Congress.
Taxpayers: the bill limits Members and covered legislative staff to coach fares for official travel (starting FY2026), aligning legislative travel with executive-branch rules and clarifying which staff remain subject to those rules, which should reduce travel costs and arbitrary premium travel.
Taxpayers and the public: the bill removes routine special access for former Members to House-only spaces and services and requires any exceptions to be published in the Congressional Record within 24 hours, increasing transparency and reducing perceived favoritism.
Former Members and their families: banning post-service lobbying removes a source of post-congressional income and career options, and the criminal 'knowing-and-intent' standard could chill legitimate communications (like sharing expertise) or risk prosecutions for inadvertent violations.
Members and payroll administrators: eliminating automatic pay adjustments may politicize pay-setting, harm recruitment/retention, risk real pay erosion if Congress fails to act (due to inflation), and impose one-time administrative costs to update payroll systems and laws.
Members and legislative staff with medical, disability, or security needs: coach-only travel limits reduce flexibility for legitimate health or safety reasons, and offices will face increased administrative burden to document exceptions while overall savings to taxpayers may be modest.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Introduced April 3, 2025 by Angela Craig · Last progress April 3, 2025
Prohibits former Senators, Representatives, and senior congressional officers from knowingly lobbying or making influence communications to Members, officers, or employees of either House on behalf of anyone other than the United States. Requires Members' official air travel to be coach class beginning in fiscal year 2026 (with limited exceptions), limits a set of privileges available to former House Members unless those benefits are public, updates House rules to add new clauses, and ends automatic periodic pay adjustments for Members of Congress after the next general election following enactment.