The Florida Constitution Revision Commission breathed new life Friday into a government ethics issue that has failed to gain traction in recent years, with a committee approving a proposal barring lawmakers from working at legislative lobbying firms.

Retired Bradenton Judge and former state lawmaker Thomas Gallen has tried unsuccessfully to convince the Florida Bar to ban such employment. A bill has been filed in the Florida Legislature to the same effect but has yet to receive a hearing.

The CRC proposal may have the best chance of advancing.

The Herald-Tribune reported last year that some of Florida’s most powerful current and former legislative leaders have worked at law firms that lobby the state Legislature, a dual role that the Florida Bar once viewed as an “inescapable” conflict of interest and effectively prohibited.

House Speaker Richard Corcoran works at a law firm with a legislative lobbying practice. So did Senate President Joe Negron and Sarasota state Sen. Greg Steube until recently. Former House Speakers Marco Rubio and Dean Cannon also worked at such firms, as does future House Speaker Chris Sprowls.

In many cases the lawmakers obtained these lucrative jobs after they joined the Legislature, raising questions of whether the firms were hiring them - at least in part - for their influence on legislative matters.

The Bar’s ethics opinions prohibiting lawyers who serve in the Legislature from working at firms with lobbying practices was rescinded in 1999 at the request of Cannon, who is now a top lobbyist.

Gallen has been working to have the bar reinstate its ethics opinion. When that failed, he began lobbying CRC members to take up the issue.

That’s exactly what the CRC’s Ethics and Elections Committee did Friday.

“The time’s come to say wait a second, that’s not what we want in our legislators,” said Ethics and Elections Vice Chair Frank Kruppenbacher, an Orlando attorney who proposed the amendment to a larger ethics reform proposal.

Kruppenbacher said he personally has been involved in discussions with lobbying firms that implied their firm is more effective because they employ a state lawmaker.

“If it’s not been expressed it's certainly be clearly inferred: ‘well you know our partner is chair of X committee in the Legislature so we’re a better group to pick,’” Kruppenbacher said.

Some of the committee members raised concerns about the proposed amendment to the state constitution.

Former state Sen. Arthenia Joyner, a Tampa Democrat, noted that the law firm where she worked during her time in the Legislature had a lawyer who lobbied the Legislature.

“It’s going to have a chilling effect on people who want to run for the Legislature who are employed by these places,” Joyner said.

“Maybe they shouldn’t run for the Legislature,” Kruppenbacher retorted.

“Who are we to decide where a person can work and not and exclude them from being public servants?” Joyner responded, adding that: “I wouldn’t have been able to be here and I do believe I made a significant contribution during my 16 years up here” in the Legislature.

At least three other committee members expressed concerns about the proposal. Some said they thought the language was too broad and would prohibit other types of employment beyond working directly for lobbying firms while serving in the Legislature. Kruppenbacher said he planned to amend it to narrow the focus.

The amendment dealing with lawmakers who work for lobbying firms was added to a larger ethics proposal that includes a six-year ban on former lawmakers lobbying the Legislature and other reforms.

The proposal must clear another committee and the full CRC before it would go before voters on the 2018 ballot.