Year after year, Rep. Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake City, has sponsored legislation that would restrict gifts. And every year, Becker's legislation is held or killed outright.

Rep. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, made the motion Wednesday to hold House Bill 144, noting that a Senate committee two weeks ago killed similar legislation from Sen. Greg Bell, R-Fruit Heights.

"If we're not going to get anything from the Senate, I don't know if we should spend any time in the House," Adams said.

Democrats protested to no avail.

"This has never had an adequate hearing in the House," said Salt Lake City Rep. David Litvack. "It deserves that."

Disclosure forms show lobbyists spent more than $140,000 on legislators' meals, Jazz basketball and college football tickets and golf games last year, but most freebies fall below the $50 limit at which recipients must be identified in state reports.

Rules Committee members John Dougall, R-Highland, and Todd Kiser, R-Sandy, participated in a $460 trap shoot in MagÂna last September paid for by Reed Searle, a lobbyist for the Intermountain Power Agency. Rep. Jackie Biskupski, D-Salt Lake City, accepted a $60 ticket to a Utah State football game.

Only Rules Committee Chairwoman Becky Lockhart, R-Provo, voted with Litvack and two other Democrats - including Biskupski - against killing Becker's bill.