On Capitol Hill, the Senate has approved a new bill to restrict government lobbying. The bill would deny senators gifts and meals from lobbyists and limit their ability to insert special-interest provisions in large spending bills. The measure was immediately criticized for containing several loopholes and not introducing any enforcement mechanisms. On Tuesday, the Senate overwhelmingly defeated a proposal to create an independent office that would investigate ethics complaints against members of Congress. Fred Wertheimer, the president watchog group Democracy 21 said: “This is nothing to write home about. The argument they seemed to make was `trust us.’”