MONTGOMERY – Governor Bob Riley today praised members of the House Committee on Ethics who voted to update a key piece of legislation and close a loophole that would have threatened the integrity of the anti-corruption package.

When considering Sen. Bryan Taylor’s proposed ethics code overhaul on Friday night, the Alabama Senate voted to substitute a so-called “simpler” version that actually left a loophole which would have allowed the unlimited lavish wining and dining of lawmakers to continue. An updated version of the bill adopted today in the House Committee on Ethics closes that loophole by severely limiting the amount non-lobbyists can spend on public servants as well as banning completely spending on public servants by registered lobbyists.

Governor Bob Riley praised the work of the committee in the following statement:

“I applaud the members of the House Committee on Ethics for closing the loophole in the ethics code overhaul. I particularly want to thank Rep. Jim McLendon and Sen. Bryan Taylor for their leadership and teamwork in making sure this issue was addressed right away. The bill adopted by the committee restores integrity to the lobbyist reform proposal and to the anti-corruption package as a whole. I urge the members of the House of Representatives to pass the bill so the Senate may quickly concur. The road to reform is never a smooth one, but today we are closer than ever before to enacting meaningful anti-corruption reforms that will change this state forever.”