The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the State Ethics Law Protection Act. H.R. 3427 would preclude the Federal Highway Administration from interpreting a state’s Pay-to-Play laws as conflicting with federal contract bidding requirements for federal-aid highway projects.

The measure has now passed to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

Senate Bill 3628, known as the DISCLOSE Act, was reintroduced in the US Senate a second time but failed to garner the 60 votes necessary to be debated on the floor. The motion of cloture vote of 59 to 39 fell along party lines.

A reaction to Citizens United v SEC, the bill includes measures such as requiring organizations to disclose to shareholders, members, or donors information detailing how disbursements were made for campaign-related activity.

Next week there will be an exciting conference in Washington, D.C. called the Gov 2.0 Summit. This is its second annual conference and is hosted by UBM TechWeb and Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media – famous for all of those computer manuals.

From September 7-8 at the Grand Hyatt Washington, the Gov 2.0 Summit will gather thinkers from all over to share ideas about the relationship between social media and government. According to its Web site:

“Gov 2.0 Summit brings together innovators from government and the private sector to highlight technology and ideas that can be applied to the nation’s great challenges. … Our focus this year is on opening the door to innovation, learning about the latest technology and its application, and breaking down the barriers to its adoption.”

The private sector cost to attend Gov 2.0 Summit – $1495, public sector – $995.

This is a great Web site. The list of sponsors, speakers, vendors, and attendees is fascinating – and you can even watch videos of presentations from last years’ gathering. (That alone makes the site worth visiting, even if you have no intention of attending the Summit.) Who knows, maybe I’ll go!

Let me know if you are going. And if you do go, please share your impressions of the Summit!

H.R. 4790 requires any corporation making political expenditures must first amend its bylaws to require majority shareholder approval of any political expenditure in excess of $50,000. Corporations would also have to annually report all political spending over $10,000 to their shareholders.

The legislation authorizes the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to require disclosure of all political expenditures made by a corporation as well as the individual votes of company board members who authorized the expenditures. Further, the measure requires the SEC to publish the disclosures on its public website. The measure now moves to the full House for consideration though the vote may not occur until after Congress returns from its August recess.

For the time being, the Supreme Court’s ruling stands. Another vote is thought possible in September after Congress returns from the August recess.

Here are three articles for further reading:

“Senate Dems lack votes to overcome Republican filibuster of Disclose Act,” by Alexander Bolton in The Hill.

“Dems table campaign finance reform,” by Meredith Shiner in Politico.

“Bill on political ad disclosures falls a little short in Senate,” by Dan Eggen in the Washington Post.

The measure will come to a vote on the floor of the Senate early next week. Reid’s move begins the endgame for the legislation even though he does not yet have the votes to overcome the anticipated filibuster from the bill’s opponents.

New York Senator Charles Schumer, who authored S. 3295, the Senate’s version of the DISCLOSE Act, has modified the bill to address concerns raised when H.R. 5175 was passed by the House earlier this summer. Democrats hope the changes will be enough to win the support of Maine GOP Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both of whom expressed reservations regarding the House bill. For example, Senator Collins believes H.R. 5175 provides unions with special exemptions and a corresponding unfair political advantage over corporations.

It is unclear at this time whether or not changes to the Senate bill offered by Schumer will be enough to overcome Collins’ and Snowe’s objections. The Senate vote could come as early as Tuesday.

If you are looking for more coverage, the Hill has two articles by Susan Crabtree:

“Schumer files new version of campaign-finance bill to court centrist votes,” July 22, 2010

“Sen. Reid sets up showdown next week on campaign finance,” July23, 2010

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) announced he would oppose the DISCLOSE Act, depriving Democrats of an important swing vote on the legislation. For more insight on the future of the campaign finance bill, here are three articles:

Sen. Brown to oppose Disclose Act, by Susan Crabtree in The Hill.

Brown’s opposition dims chances for campaign finance overhaul, by Matt Viser in the Boston Globe.