Dear Representative:
The new Congress deserves credit for
quickly and strongly responding to the scandals of last year by passing
sweeping changes to the rules that will reduce the special access of
wealthy and powerful interests in Washington. It was a critical first
step.
We now urge you to finish the job by supporting
legislation that will ensure that the new rules will be adequately
enforced. Today, we ask you to be a co-sponsor of H.R. 422 introduced
by Reps. Shays and Meehan.
Jack Abramoff’s fall from power
cannot be credited to an aggressive House or Senate ethics enforcement
process. He was turned in to the Justice Department by a competitor
turned whistle-blower. After the initial details of the case came out,
the public saw no action from the House and Senate Ethics Committees.
There was no evidence the committees initiated any probe nor asked any
questions nor made any attempt to see if members had violated the rules
and the public trust. The House Ethics Committee was so paralyzed they
failed to even convene a meeting for most of the 109th Congress.
The
current system is broken. Overseeing one’s own colleagues is difficult
under any circumstances, but oversight in a charged partisan
environment like the U.S. Congress is, as we have now seen,
impossible. This is not to say that members of Congress are any less
capable than others to self-police, no one self-polices well. In the
Executive Branch there is an Office of Government Ethics. Businesses
have outside auditors. Disciplinary boards for lawyers and doctors have
strict rules regarding conflicts of interest. Congress needs
independent and professional oversight and enforcement of the rules.
Under
the bill, Congress would still maintain final responsibility for any
sanction against a member. The oversight office would receive
complaints and have authority to investigate where evidence suggests a
violation has occurred. The importance of the office is that there will
be an impartial, nonpartisan review of the complaints.
While
some have expressed concerns about the filing of frivolous complaints,
the change actually offers members better protection against false
accusations. Current practice is for outside groups to send up
unofficial and public ‘complaint’ letters with accusations that go to
the ethics committees but are never resolved. In the last election,
some members found themselves answering questions about those
unresolved accusations. The proposed system would establish a set
amount of time for handling complaints and to determine if a complaint
was frivolous. Members would then receive notification from a
nonpartisan, independent entity testifying to the fact that there was
no foundation to baseless attacks.
The rules package adopted
with almost unanimous support closed many of the loopholes that have
allowed undue influence of powerful lobbyists. To ensure that the new
rules are more than paper tigers, Congress must also move to create
outside, professional oversight to enforce the rules and give assurance
to the American people that the new Congress will different from the
last.
Sincerely,
