Oregon Public Broadcasting

Nearly a year after Congress passed new ethics rules, Oregon Congress members are fighting for an occasional free beer. The entire Oregon House delegation is members of the Congressional Small Brewers Caucus. Capitol News Connection’s Matt Laslo reports from Washington.

Craft beers like this one are not just good tasting, but have become an important player in local economies. Nationally sales are up thirty percent in the past three years.

Hood River Republican Greg Walden is the co-chair of the caucus. He says Oregon’s microbreweries are more than just places to go for a great brew.

Greg Walden: “Well I think it is very important. Oregon is right at the top in terms of craft beers. We have a big, small industry – if you will. A lot of individuals, a lot of small companies, really creative people that have broadened the scope of the industry.”

Springfield Democrat Peter Defazio is the other leader of the Small Brewers Caucus. He says the varied tastes and the intricate designs of craft beers make them stand out from mass-produced ones.

Peter Defazio: “Provides a great product. We don’t have to drink that swill that some people call 'beer' in other places.”

And that is what the Small Brewers Caucus is devoted to: promoting local breweries that are tickling beer drinker’s palates.

Part of the way they did that last year was to have an open door event on Capitol Hill. The beer was donated from small breweries across the U.S. But Defazio says the caucus has hit a snag.

Peter Defazio: ”Oh we’ve run afoul of the new ethics rules.”

Under the new rules members are no longer allowed to receive gifts, or to taste things, like beers, that look like gifts.

Defazio is currently working with the ethics committee to fix the problem, so that the caucus can have another event.

California Republican Darrel Issa is also a member of the group. He says this prohibition shows the ethics reform passed last year was hastily done and too broad.

Darrel Issa: "None of us can figure out how to make the rather strange ethics rules work, and it’s a shame because the American people wanted us to do some real ethics reform, and instead we end up with some real convoluted rules."

When it comes to laws that Congress passes for itself there are always loopholes. The ethics reform did include an educational clause, which may allow the members to get their frosty mugs in exchange for a lecture or slide show.

There is also the event clause, which means members would need to round up twenty-five people who don’t work on Capitol Hill in order to get free beers. Which may not be the hardest thing for the caucus to do.

Alan Baldwin: “You look thirsty.”

“I am”

“We’ve got a light ale, a gold ale and a brown ale. And if you’d like to try 'em all I got plenty of cups.”

Alan Baldwin pours beers for the Maryland based brewery Hook and Ladder.

"I’d like the light please.” 

Alan Baldwin: “It's one of the only light ales in the country right now."

"Well that’s quite good”

Hook and Ladder President Matt Fleischer says donating beer is part of the company’s advertising, but he says there should be a limit . . . even for lawmakers.

Matt Fleischer: "I’m okay with a little free beer every here and there just to wet the palate, but for the most part everybody needs to pay for the quality beverages we produce."

He says all he wants from Congress is fewer rules. That is the reason most lawmakers joined the Small Brewers Caucus: they want to keep government regulations away from the industry.

And now the members are disappointed they got tangled in their own ethics law. But one member thinks he has a possible answer. California Republican Brian Bilbray is a home brewer himself.

Brian Bilbray: "Maybe what we gotta do is a lot of us just gotta start brewin' our own, and then we can meet and talk about our own beers. After all why do they make five gallon water bottles unless it is to brew beer.”

Some of the other caucus members brew their own beers as well -- like Defazio -- but it will be hard to get them to just give away those hand crafted beers. So in the meantime they’re stuck in prohibition.

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Capitol News Connection