Lobbying Reform bill

Restoring Trust in Government Act - Establishes an independent commission on lobbying and ethics in the legislative branch.

Requires monthly online lobbying disclosure reports to the commission, available to the public on the Internet.

Amends the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 (LDA) to subject individuals to criminal penalties for noncompliance with lobbying disclosure requirements.

Denies floor privileges to former Members, Delegates, Resident Commissioners, Parliamentarians, and elected officers and minority employees nominated as elected officers of the House of Representatives who are registered lobbyists.

Amends the federal criminal code to revise the one-year prohibition on lobbying contacts by former elected officers and employees of the legislative branch with any Member, officer, or employee of the entity in which such person served before his or her tenure terminated. Extends such ban to contacts with any officers or employees of either chamber or other congressional legislative office. Applies the prohibition to acts by former personal, committee, and leadership staff who had responsibilities a significant portion of which related to the development of policy.

Places a four-year prohibition on lobbying Congress for foreign governments, subject to criminal penalties, for former senior and very senior executive branch personnel, Members of Congress, and legislative officers and employees.

Requires random audits of Members of Congress' annual financial disclosure statements.

Amends the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 to impose criminal penalties for intentionally misrepresenting facts on financial disclosure statements.

Requires the commission to affirmatively approve all privately funded travel by Members of Congress and staff.

Revokes the federal pension of a Member of Congress or congressional employee if he or she is convicted of any federal offense related to bribery.

Amends the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act to revise background investigation requirements to require the National Indian Gaming Commission to conduct or cause to be conducted background investigations on the 10 persons or entities with the highest financial interest in each gaming operation it regulates.

Requires Commission background investigations of tribal class II gaming commissioners and their employees.

Grants the Chairman of the Commission authority to approve the 10 persons or entities with such highest financial interest.

Doubles from $8 million to $16 million the aggregate limitation on fees paid annually to the Commission by each gaming operation that conducts a regulated class II or III gaming activity.

Allows an Indian tribe to engage in class II and III gaming activities on lands taken into trust for the tribe after enactment of this Act only if the application requesting that the land be taken into trust stated that the tribe intended to conduct such gaming activities.

Revises the exceptions to the prohibition on gaming on Indian lands acquired in trust under the Act after October 17, 1988.

Permits an Indian tribe to conduct gaming on lands acquired after October 17, 1988, on only one contiguous parcel of Indian lands located where the tribe has its primary geographic, social, and historical nexus and within the state or states where the tribe is primarily located.

Amends the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to: (1) treat members of an unincorporated Indian tribe in the same manner as the stockholders of a corporation; and (2) prohibit section 527 organizations from disbursing funds for electioneering communications.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov