Another Round For The House

Elizabeth Benjamin at the NY Daily News forwards her readers the above chart regarding the rules for lobbyists who want to buy drinks or food for members of Congress today. The accompanying email from the Lobbying Compliance Center begins:

"In a town with many Irish pubs, it's to be expected that Washington, D.C., would go all out for St. Patrick's Day. Lobbyists can't buy a Guinness specifically for a Congressional member or staffer, but the ethics committees have given some guidance on when they might be able to cover a round of drinks for a group of people that includes a congressional member or staffer."

So you can't buy drinks specifically for a individual member of Congress, but you can buy a round for their entire party. Oh, that's better. Benjamin notes that even that rule would be handy in Albany, where lobbyists outnumber lawmakers by 24-1, the highest ratio of any state legislature.