The proposal released today by the Special Task Force on Ethics Enforcement represents a meaningful step toward fixing the broken and discredited House ethics process.
Today’s proposal would fundamentally change the way in which ethics complaints are initiated and handled. A new independent Office of Congressional Ethics would end the partisan gridlock that has stymied legitimate ethics investigations. Disclosure of the activities of the ethics office will end the secrecy that has been a hallmark of the Congressional ethics committee and increase accountability for those who break the rules.
Earlier this year, Congress adopted strong new rules to rein in clubby practices that had allowed powerful lobbyists to gain special access for well-heeled clients. But the promise of the new rules to exact significant change here in Washington is only as good as the ability to enforce them. Violators have little to fear under the current system which closely resembles a firing squad standing in a circle. The result has been years of bipartisan détente and little accountability.
Specifically the proposal would:
• Establish an independent Office of Congressional Ethics run by a six member board with the power to file complaints and initiate its own investigations into allegations of wrongdoing.
• Protect board members against arbitrary and partisan efforts to remove them if they take up allegations against members that are either politically embarrassing to one side or the other or involve powerful individuals.
• Establish timetables and deadlines for acting on ethics complaints and making public any findings of investigations.
• Assure that the Office is able completes investigations.
• Make virtually all of the work of the new Office available to the public.
The proposal could be strengthened by giving board members access to subpoena power to compel witnesses to come before the board.
This proposal is an important step toward cleaning up the mess in Washington. U.S. PIRG urges all members of the House to support the proposal without weakening amendments.
