Jeff Piccola

The Senate State Government Committee has unanimously approved a bill that would ban lawmakers and other state workers from accepting lobbyist gifts, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

"It would elevate the process to one that the people would have more confidence in," Sen. Jeffrey Piccola (R-Dauphin County), chairman of the State Government Committee and the bill's sponsor, told the Inquirer.

The state currently mandates lobbyists report gifts they give to lawmakers and the amount of money they spend influencing policy.

It's unclear whether the full Senate will consider the measure before the end of the session in November.

Sen. Jeff Piccola has been trying to get a measure passed that would require state legislators to report all gifts over $10.  While the bill isn’t likely to see the light of day, the question is would it matter even if it passed.  According a recent article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, more than a dozen legislators didn’t report gifts they received last year. 

A week ago it was reported the Clintons had developed an enemy list, not a list any democrat would want to find themselves on we are sure.  After the report we decided to plan a secret bug in some prominent Pennsylvania politicians offices and send a mole in there to ask who is on top of their enemy list.  Here is what we found.

Jeff Piccola was a winner in our first ever installment of Winners and Losers. Find out why he joins U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski as a loser for the week ending May 30, 2008.

Gov. Ed RendellBy a vote of 26-24 Gov. Ed Rendell’s judicial nominations James Gardner Colins for Supreme Court, Kenneth Gormley for Commonwealth Court and James Fitzgerald and Robert Daniels for Superior Court were rejected in the Senate. John Eichelberger, Stewart Greenleaf and Jeff Piccola were the lone Republicans to vote in favor of the nomination.