Mugs are OK but a pizza is forbidden

Congressional staffers, working long nights as they put together big bills, call for pizza as often as college kids.

Congressional staffers, working long nights as they put together big bills, call for pizza as often as college kids.

Only sometimes, according to several lobbyists The Hill has talked to over the years, they place their order with a local lobbying firm instead of a local Pizza Hut.

It is then up to the fat cats on K Street to dial for delivery — and to pay. It’s the adult equivalent of putting food on a U-card on which your parents pick up the tab. 

No longer!

The House ethics committee released a memo this week explaining the real implications of the legislation the House passed a few weeks ago. That is, which activities are and aren’t kosher under the new gift rules.

Lobbyists’ footing the bill for pizza is specifically prohibited, as explained in the following helpfully detailed scenario: “A lobbying firm sends five pizzas to committee staff, knowing that they are working late on a bill. The pizza would generally have been acceptable under the previous rule up to a value of $49.99 per staff person.

“Under the new rule, the pizzas must be declined regardless of value because they from are a lobbying firm.”

Note the blame-shifting.

Regardless of with whom the responsibility lies, the result is the same: no more free pizza. Or, for that matter, no gifts of any stripe from lobbyists or entities that employ them.

So, for example, a trade association offers a staffer a ticket to the Nationals game. Even if the staffer wanted to go, the staffer couldn’t.

“The ticket would have been acceptable under the previous rule, but now must be declined.”

Bummer. No gifts at all? Well, not exactly.

The memo notes preexisting exemptions that still apply to the House’s new ban on gift-giving.

Members and staff can continue to accept free attendance, including food and refreshments, at a “widely attended event,” the memo notes.

For an event to qualify as “widely attended” there must be the expectation that at least 25 people will be in attendance.

The invitation must come from the sponsor of the event, the memo states. A staff member could not attend if a defense contractor invited him or her to a trade association luncheon, for example.

Also, hors d’oeuvres can be eaten at various events. But a box lunch at a policy briefing given by, say, the American Chemistry Council is verboten because it would be considered “part of the meal.”

Other quirks: T-shirts and baseball caps are acceptable as gifts, even from a group that employs a lobbyist. But a mug must not be taken under the new rules.

One big potential loophole is that members and staff can accept gifts given on “the basis on a personal friendship.” But even there, the ethics committee advises caution. An old college roommate who has since become a lobbyist can pay for dinner. But a staffer could not accept a meal or any other gift from a lobbyist the staffer considers a friend if the friendship grew out of a working relationship, and if the two had not exchanged gifts in the past or regularly attended social functions with one another.

Other loopholes: Family members of lawmakers or staff who lobby can still give gifts, the memo states.

And candy that’s made in the district can also be accepted as a “home-state product.”

But no more free golf at charity events if the trade association putting it on retains a lobbyist.