Jack Abramoff was the top lobbyist in D.C. from 1994 to 2001 and was involved in arguably one of the largest scandals in American history. This scandal involved many other people and some main players were Michael Scanlon, Adam Kidan, Ralph Reed, Tom Delay, and Bob Ney. All of these people either received bribes, gave out bribes, or were involved in some other type of illegal activity. Abramoff’s scandal was based mainly around his lobbying work with the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and their interests in owning casinos and gambling. His first job in 1995 was to eliminate the bill that was charging an unrelated sales tax to the Native Americans casinos. Abramoff charged ludicrous amounts of money for his services because the Choctaw
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The acts of Abramoff completely changed how Capitol Hill looks at lobbyist and they have started to put restrictions on how the lobbyists do business. Paul Miller, the president of the American League of Lobbyists states, "The biggest thing right now is ... there has to be an enforcement mechanism in place. Currently, we do not have that. If we did, I'm a true believer that Jack Abramoff would not have gotten away with what he did" (Feldmann 4). Congress has been forced to modify and add new bills to prevent themselves from getting bribed or having lobbyist do other unethical things in their work. Congress has acted like what Abramoff has done is horrible, yet every one of them could have and some did get bribed by Abramoff. They have also discussed lengthening the waiting period of congressman becoming lobbyist to two years. This would prevent certain congressman from committing corrupt actions in the action they call the “revolving door” of congressman immediately becoming lobbyist. Every member of congress has a different view on what should be done with this issue. Some want to put tighter restrictions on travel, gifts, and other favors lobbyists can give lawmakers while others want to completely ban all gifts and also to stop lobbyist from being any part in trips with lawmakers. Abramoff came forward and expressed some ideas he had that could
The acts of Abramoff completely changed how Capitol Hill looks at lobbyist and they have started to put restrictions on how the lobbyists do business. Paul Miller, the president of the American League of Lobbyists states, "The biggest thing right now is ... there has to be an enforcement mechanism in place. Currently, we do not have that. If we did, I'm a true believer that Jack Abramoff would not have gotten away with what he did" (Feldmann 4). Congress has been forced to modify and add new bills to prevent themselves from getting bribed or having lobbyist do other unethical things in their work. Congress has acted like what Abramoff has done is horrible, yet every one of them could have and some did get bribed by Abramoff. They have also discussed lengthening the waiting period of congressman becoming lobbyist to two years. This would prevent certain congressman from committing corrupt actions in the action they call the “revolving door” of congressman immediately becoming lobbyist. Every member of congress has a different view on what should be done with this issue. Some want to put tighter restrictions on travel, gifts, and other favors lobbyists can give lawmakers while others want to completely ban all gifts and also to stop lobbyist from being any part in trips with lawmakers. Abramoff came forward and expressed some ideas he had that could