Washington ? New restrictions on lobbying and spending on lawmakers’ pet projects, aimed at curbing corruption in Congress, cleared the House of Representatives on Tuesday, and Senate leaders said they expected to pass the legislation this week before leaving for their August recess.

Democratic leaders said the sweeping measure made good on their 2006 campaign promise to enact the strongest reforms in decades after scandals that led to the convictions of former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

A group of Republican senators who say the measure doesn’t sufficiently reform “earmarks” – money for pet projects that’s often tucked into spending bills with little review – had hoped to block its final passage.

But the bipartisan 411-8 House vote and the high-profile FBI search this week of the home of veteran Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, in a corruption investigation led critics to concede that the legislation probably will become law.

Campaign-finance watchdogs said they thought the measure had teeth even if it didn’t have every provision they wanted. Meredith McGehee, policy director for the Campaign Legal Center, called it “historic” and “long overdue.”

“None of these bills are perfect,” McGehee said. “What you look at is, ‘Is it credible earmark reform?’ and I think it’s clear that, yes, it is.”

The measure generally would require lawmakers to identify their earmarks publicly at least two days before a vote, and would create a mechanism to remove 11th-hour earmarks tucked into House-Senate compromises.

It would ban lobbyists from providing lawmakers with meals, gifts and travel, and would further restrict lawmakers’ use of private jets.

Lobbyists would have to file disclosure forms quarterly rather than twice a year. A publicly searchable database would track that information. And lawmakers would have to disclose lobbyists’ “bundling,” or packaging of campaign contributions from others.

Lawmakers who were convicted of corruption-related felonies – including bribery, perjury and conspiracy – would lose their congressional pensions.

Lawmakers or staffers who seek to influence hiring by lobbying firms for partisan purposes could be convicted of crimes punishable by prison time.

Critics said that some crimes, including tax evasion, weren’t specified among those that could cost lawmakers their pensions. They also charged that committee chairmen would retain too much power to decide whether earmarks were being handled appropriately.