It would have also required all paid professional lobbyists to register and disclose considerable financial information.

Some of them were paid lobbyists for those same interests.

They paid lobbyists to ask Congress to cut funding.

The fact that you have people working in your campaign who are paid foreign lobbyists.

The new rule bars lawmakers and their aides from accepting meals paid for by employees of companies that also pay registered lobbyists.

The proposals include restrictions on the use of Federal funds to pay lobbyists.

Even organizations that seem to have all-embracing connections to government decision-makers find the need to pay lobbyists.

And paying lobbyists would no longer be deductible.

Critics say the situation shows that special interest groups are really paying lobbyists to get access to people in power, not for their expertise.

Under the bill, the only people who would have to register are paid, professional lobbyists.