Lobby Reform

What's New

Ethics Enforcement Bill Becomes Law

On March 11 the House voted to create an Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), an independent office to investigate allegations of ethical violations by members of Congress and staff. The vote ends a year-long battle to improve ethics standards in Congress. This office, which we championed, represents a meaningful step toward fixing the broken and discredited ethics enforcement process in the House.

Overview

Scandals over the last two years have revealed a number of cases of overt corruption. Former Congressmen Duke Cunningham (Calif.) and Robert Ney (Ohio) were caught trading votes for campaign contributions and other bribes. Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff landed in jail for masterminding efforts using campaign contributions to steer public funds to his pet projects. Rep William Jefferson (La.) is under investigation after the FBI found $90,000 in cash in his freezer and former Rep. Tom DeLay is still defending himself against corruption charges. Several top legislative and White House aides have already pled guilty to corruption charges and this may only be the tip of the iceberg.

Enforcement is key. Overseeing one’s own colleagues is difficult under any circumstances, but oversight in a partisan-charged environment like Congress is, as we have now seen, impossible. In the Executive Branch there is an Office of Government Ethics. Businesses have outside auditors. Congress needs independent and professional oversight and enforcement of the rules.

Several proposals, such as the Office of Public Integrity put forth in the House by Reps. Shays (Conn.) and Meehan (Mass.), or an independent ethics commission as detailed in a bill by Reps. Castle (Del.) and Platts (Pa.) create workable models of how such entities would operate.

Former super lobbyist 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. The House Ethics Committee was so paralyzed they failed to even convene a meeting for most of the 109th Congress.