Friday, January 19, 2007

Something missing in Senate ethics bill

If I missed something let me know, but the much ballyhooed Senate ethics bill doesn't address large book advances, such as the type of deal then Senator-elect Hillary Clinton and then Senator-elect Barack Obama got from their respective publishers.

After a much-pilloried book deal then Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich received, House ethics rules on book advances were toughened up.

From the House Ethics Rules:

NO advances on copyright royalties in book contracts; royalties may be accepted only if contract is with an established publisher on customary terms and is approved by Standards Committee.

The rule is open-ended enough where Obama and Hillary still could've gotten their huge book-advances under this guideline, but why not drop the looser Senate rule on advances and replace it with the House version?

The current ethics rules are here, but I can't seem to pull up the PDF file this morning. The section on royalties was on page 98 of the Senate Ethics Manual.

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