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WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sens. John McCain and Russell Feingold, who led the push to block unlimited corporate and union donations to political parties, will move as early as today to tighten Washington's lobbying rules amid a widening scandal.

The lawmakers will introduce legislation that would require lobbyists to disclose, through quarterly electronic reports, all the contributions they make, the fundraisers they arrange and the amount they spend on behalf of candidates and political parties, according to a person who has seen a draft. The measure would require disclosure of all grassroots activities and double to two years the waiting period before a lawmaker-turned-lobbyist could lobby a former colleague.

McCain, an Arizona Republican, said he was spurred to act after hearings by his Indian Affairs Committee showed that lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former partner Michael Scanlon had charged Indian clients more than $80 million and directed the tribes to donate money to politicians and pet projects.

"It's obvious why it's needed," McCain told reporters at the Capitol today. "One word: Abramoff."

Abramoff is at the center of a Justice Department-led investigation. Scanlon, a former aide to Representative Tom DeLay, pleaded guilty on Nov. 21 to conspiring to corrupt public officials and defraud clients, and agreed to cooperate in the probe. Separately, Abramoff has been indicted in Florida on wire-fraud charges while buying a casino-ship company.

Abramoff, Scanlon and their tribal clients contributed $1.4 million to members of Congress between 2001 and 2004, a review of Federal Election Commission and Internal Revenue Service records shows. Republican Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana received the most money, at least $136,500.

Rep. Robert Ney, an Ohio Republican, received $54,500. His lawyer, Mark Tuohey, said last month that Ney was the unnamed "Representative 1" mentioned in the plea agreement that Scanlon reached with the Justice Department. The agreement charged that Ney was offered "a stream of things of value," such as a 2002 trip to Scotland, and that he provided assistance in return, such as inserting statements into the Congressional Record. Ney has denied wrongdoing.

The Abramoff-linked donations spread to Democrats as well. Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, the top Democrat on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, got $67,000. Dorgan said this week he was returning the donations.

Dorgan, as a member of the Senate Appropriations Interior subcommittee, signed onto legislation in October 2003 that provided $3 million for one of Abramoff's clients, the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe of Michigan, one of the wealthiest in the country because of its casino business. Congress acted after the Interior Department rejected the tribe's grant request.

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