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“Moving clean government laws is never easy in the Pennsylvania legislature, but these are four easy pieces of basic reform – truly the low hanging fruit in a large orchard of overdue government reforms” said Common Cause Pennsylvania Executive Director Barry Kauffman. With the current legislative session nearly three-quarters completed, and despite ethics scandals rocking the capitol with troubling frequency, the General Assembly still has not passed any significant laws this session to clean up Pennsylvania government.

Pennsylvania remains one of only ten states that does not limit or ban lobbyists and other special interest advocates from bestowing gifts, entertainment, travel and hospitality perks on legislators and/or other public officials. In testimony before the House State Government Committee today, Common Cause Pennsylvani called on the committee to tighten up and expand upon a bill that is designed to increase disclosure of gifts to public officials in Pennsylvania.