CNN: Congress OKs Ethics Investigators
Just hours after taking office, the new House of Representatives reinstated a team of ethics investigators that had faced what seemed like a certain death due to lawmakers’ inaction. Overshadowed by the recent fiscal cliff hubbub, lawmakers from the last session had neglected to decide whether or not to...
The Hill: House Votes to Reinstate Ethics Office
The co-chairmen of the OCE, Porter Goss and David Skaggs, are expected to continue on in this Congress. The OCE was created in 2008 at the prodding of Pelosi, then House Speaker, who had led a successful campaign to retake control of the chamber in part by pledging to...
USA Today: New Congress Keeps Ethics Office Alive
WASHINGTON — Congress has voted to keep intact an independent office that polices the behavior of House members. Lawmakers approved the Office of Congressional Ethics as part of a package of rules that will govern the new Congress, which convened Thursday. The terms of four of the six members...
USA Today: Ethics Office Set to Retain Powers in New Congress
WASHINGTON — An independent office that polices congressional ethics would remain on the beat in the new Congress under proposed rules the House will consider this week. The terms of four of the six members of the Office of Congressional Ethics’ board were set to expire when the new...
CNN: Congressional Ethics Investigators Could Soon Be Silenced
Inside an ordinary office building six blocks from the Capitol, investigators sift through evidence of possible violations against ethics and laws committed by the nation’s elected representatives. This is the Office of Congressional Ethics, also known as the OCE. It is one of the most important watchdogs in Washington....
The Washington Post: Watchdogs Warn House Ethics Process Is at Risk
Government watchdogs are warning that the independent office responsible for overseeing ethics investigations of House lawmakers runs the risk of becoming a toothless entity if leaders fail to appoint new board members in the closing weeks of the year. The independent Office of Congressional Ethics was established in 2008...
The Hill: Watchdogs Plead with Boehner and Pelosi for Ethics Appointments
Good-government groups on Wednesday pleaded with House leaders to quickly appoint new board members to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) for the next Congress. The ethics office will cease to exist in less than a month unless House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.)...
Roll Call: Empty Ethics Posts Draw Critics’ Ire
Time is dwindling for House leaders to find and appoint candidates to fill at least four impending openings on the board of the Office of Congressional Ethics before year’s end so its investigative work can continue uninterrupted. The vacancies, combined with House Republicans’ delay appointing a House Ethics Committee...
New York Times: Beyond the Fiscal Cliff
As Congress waits for negotiators to resolve the budget standoff, there is other worthy business that could be accomplished, particularly in political ethics. The four-year-old Office of Congressional Ethics — the quasi-independent watchdog and preliminary investigator of House members’ misbehavior — is one of the rare success stories on...
USA Today: Delayed Appointments Could Curb House Ethics Probes
WASHINGTON – An independent office created four years ago to police congressional behavior will lose its investigative powers unless House leaders move quickly to name new board members — the latest potential threat to the watchdog office. The terms of four of the six members of the Office of...
Roll Call: Office of Congressional Ethics Must Survive
As I write, the elections are not over — but by the time you read this, voters will have chosen the 113th Congress. The 112th, of course, is far from finished; it will be back next week, like a new installment of “Friday the 13th,” to finish unfinished business...
The Washington Post: Congressional Ethics Need Stricter Police
CONGRESS HAS BECOME a habitual loser in public-opinion polls, and the latest installment in The Post’s series on the congressional ethics system helps to show why. The Post found that lawmakers can and do sponsor legislation that could benefit business interests in which they or their families have a...
Philadelphia Inquirer: Panel that Reviewed Andrews May Be in Danger
After Congressman Rob Andrews used campaign money to pay for a $30,000 trip to Scotland with his family, a little-known panel of Washington watchdogs added some key details. It turned out that Andrews, a veteran South Jersey Democrat, had relied on his wife’s ethics advice for the OK to...
The Hill: Watchdog Groups Prod Boehner, Pelosi to Fill Spots on Ethics Board
Watchdog groups are pressing House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to select replacements for the four retiring members on the board of the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). Four of the six board members of the outside ethics panel will no longer be eligible...
The New York Times: Congress’s Unpopular Watchdog
The Office of Congressional Ethics, a proven force for good on Capitol Hill, is in need of a fresh lease from House leaders if it is to continue conducting discreet preliminary investigations of corruption allegations against lawmakers. The quasi-independent office has tallied an impressive 101 ethics inquiries in its...
Roll Call: OCE Board Members Face Expiring Terms
In the four years since the Office of Congressional Ethics opened its doors, it has earned the quiet respect of its skeptics. But now some of the very people who feared the office would not be able to accomplish its mission are worried that a disruption in leadership could...
Washington Times: Small Office Has Big Job as Monitor of Ethics in the House
To many Washington outsiders, congressional ethics is an oxymoron or fodder for late-night comedians, but watchdogs and longtime Washington observers point to one hopeful sign — an office they believe is helping members take ethics rules more seriously. With a budget of just $1.5 million and a staff of...
McClatchy Newspapers: Bipartisan House Vote Defeats Bid to Defund Ethics Office
WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives on Friday roundly rejected a move to cut the budget of the Office of Congressional Ethics by 40 percent. On a bipartisan vote of 302-102, the House rejected the amendment offered by Rep. Mel Watt, a North Carolina Democrat who was investigated last...
Sunlight Reporting Group: OCE Report on Financial Reform Shows Nexus between Fundraising and Legislating
On Nov. 24, 2009, Sara Conrad, the fundraising consultant for Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., sent anemail to Michael Stein, head of government relations for financial services giant Morgan Stanley, inviting him to attend a Dec. 10 fundraising reception for Crowley’s campaign. The email was a follow-up to a prior...
The New York Times: The Disappearing Ethics Act
In a woeful signal to the new Congress, the House ethics committee has decided that when it comes to money and ethics, money nearly always wins. The panel ruled there was no appearance of a conflict of interest committed by three lawmakers who held fund-raising meetings with financial industry...
Roll Call: Ethics Report Highlights Thin Wall between Congress and Campaigns
The House Ethics Committee issued a report last month with evidence that campaign donors were offered one-on-one meetings with Members of Congress, that senior Congressional staff participated in nearly every fundraising activity a Member conducted, and that a lobbyist discussed both a legislative concern and a fundraising event with...
The Washington Post: An Ethics Watchdog Survives
HOUSE REPUBLICANS have made a wise decision in opting to retain the independent, and seemingly endangered,Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). The entity was set up in 2008, after Democrats retook control of the House, as an important adjunct to the often dysfunctional ethics committee. The existing arrangement is not...
The Philadelphia Inquirer: Congress Needs Watchdog
The incoming House Republican majority took a positive step Wednesday by resisting calls to get rid of the Office of Congressional Ethics. There has been grumbling in both parties that the OCE should be discontinued. If that were to happen, opponents argued, the logical time would be when Republicans...
The New York Times: Survival of Ethics Oversight
The House’s incoming Republican majority has wisely concluded the quasi-independent Office of Congressional Ethics better not be dismantled. When they were the minority, Republicans fiercely opposed the creation of the office by Speaker Nancy Pelosi as an oversight tool to bolster the notoriously feeble job done by the members’...
The Chicago Tribune: No Backsliding on House Ethics
As I watched the sad sight of Rep. Charles Rangel, a decorated Korean War veteran, standing in the well of the House waiting to be humiliated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with resounding censure, I was reminded of a joke I once heard about a critic’s review of a...
CBS News: Ethics Rubber Meets the Road
Each party claims to be the one that’s most concerned with ethics in Washington. Democrats promised to “drain the swamp.” Republicans point to a host of Democratic ethics scandals since, including — most recently — charges against Democrats Charles Rangel and Maxine Waters. So who’s really serious about...
USA Today: Our View on Congress
But the humiliating rebuke occurred only after a battle showing that too many members, including Rangel himself, seem indifferent to people’s expectations that their elected representatives will adhere to a standard of conduct higher than “don’t get caught in the act of stealing.” Before the censure vote, a disturbing...
The Hill: Watchdogs Team Up with Tea Party to Defend Ethics Office from Calls to Close
Watchdog groups are tapping into the Tea Party’s grassroots power in an attempt to preserve stronger ethics rules in Congress. Three influential taxpayer groups have joined forces with watchdogs to pressure incoming House GOP leaders not to weaken or shutter an independent ethics office.
The Washington Post: Avoiding a Relapse
WITH BIPARTISANSHIP so rare, it ought to be a good sign when Republicans and Democrats agree on something. But that’s not the case when it comes to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), an independent entity set up two years ago, in the aftermath of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal,...
The New York Times: Ethics in the New House
As he approaches the duties of speaker of the House, Representative John Boehner is generously asking one and all for ideas on “how we can make this institution function again.” Mr. Boehner did not mention dysfunction, but that’s apparently in the works, too, according to reports that he will...
USA Today: Ethics inquiries in Congress increase this year
WASHINGTON — The number of ethics cases launched in Congress has jumped dramatically in the past year, putting a focus on allegations of misconduct by lawmakers heading into November’s elections. Despite the specter of public ethics trials for veteran Democratic Reps. Charles Rangel ofNew York and Maxine Waters of...
Time: The Ethics Watchdog…
It’s safe to say that Leo Wise has made more enemies than friends in his two years on Capitol Hill. But as staff director and general counsel of the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), maybe that’s the point. Wise’s leadership of the two-year-old independent office has rubbed many Democrats...
The New York Times: Not Too Much Ethics, Please
House Republicans are chortling over the Democratic majority’s troubles with ethics allegations, but they also are ominously signaling their distaste for the Office of Congressional Ethics — the one new player on Capitol Hill with a clear determination to do something about the morass. The Republican minority leader, John...
The New York Times: They Must Be Doing Their Job
The good news from the House is that its new independent Office of Congressional Ethics is doing a strong enough job to prompt outcries from members whose behavior has come under scrutiny. The bad, if predictable, news is some of those lawmakers are trying to strip the office of...
The Washington Post: Resolution threatens power of OCE
TALK ABOUT BLAMING the messenger. The newly created Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent watchdog set up to review and, if warranted, forward ethics complaints to the official House ethics committeefor further action, has taken its mission seriously. Too seriously, it seems, for the comfort of some lawmakers. Rep....
Huffington Post: Delusion on the Hill? The Earmark Puzzle
The House Committee on Ethics released its report last month exonerating 7 Members of Congress from the charge that they had traded earmark requests for campaign contributions. The investigation had “covered more than 40 companies … and more than 25 Member offices.” The Committee staff was said to have reviewed...
The New York Times: Someone New Is Watching
Ever since the semi-independent Office of Congressional Ethics was created two years ago to vet allegations against lawmakers, cynics wondered how soon it would fall into the find-no-evil track record of the House ethics committee it serves. The new office showed encouraging initiative this week when it released a...
The Washington Post: Resignation Ends Ethics Probe of Ex-Rep. Nathan Deal
AMONG THE many frustrating aspects of the congressional ethics process is the fact that, in the rare circumstances when the ethics committees seem poised to act against a member of Congress, lawmakers can short-circuit the inquiry by resigning. Once they’re out the door, Congress loses its jurisdiction to discipline...
The New York Times: House Ethics Office Gains, Dismissal Aside
WASHINGTON — By most measures, it has been a rough year for Leo J. Wise, the first independent ethics cop for the House of Representatives. Lawyers are denouncing him as dangerous, lawmakers are threatening to cut his already limited powers, and a House committee has so far dismissed all...
C-SPAN: Congressional Ethics and Earmarks
Melanie Sloan talked about the roles and effectiveness of the House Office of Congressional Ethics and what the Washington Post called the “thin wall” separating lobbyist contributions and earmarks. She responded to telephone calls and electronic communications.
Wall Street Journal: Earmarks Forever
Just as the cherry blossoms arrive each spring around the capital’s Tidal Basin, cases of Congressional ethics appear to be blooming everywhere in Washington. Harlem Congressman Charlie Rangel’s Ways and Means Chairmanship floated away this week. New York Congressman Eric Mass dropped his House seat via retirement ahead of...
USA Today: Watchdog Groups Seek Revamp of Ethics Rules
WASHINGTON — Watchdog groups are calling for a revamp of congressional ethics rules after the House ethics panel exonerated a dozen lawmakers in two separate investigations. Melanie Sloan, of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said the ethics committee’s recent actions prove Democratic leaders who pledged to clean...
National Public Radio: Congressional Earmarks, Contributions Scrutinized
When the House Ethics Committee dropped charges against seven members of the Appropriations Committee last week, it signaled that lawmakers can keep on directing that federal dollars be spent with contractors who give them campaign contributions. But it looks a lot like condoning practices that the committee rejected just...
The New York Times: Ethics Watchdogs Snarl at the Messenger
The House ethics committee is openly — and foolishly — sniping at its newly appointed ally in the difficult task of policing members’ behavior. A recent ethics committee report exonerated an accused congressman but blistered the new semiautonomous Office of Congressional Ethics, or O.C.E., for “fundamentally flawed” procedures in...
Politico: Ethics office launches 10 probes
The Office of Congressional Ethics has authorized preliminary or “second phase” reviews of 10 different ethics matters, although it has not made any formal recommendations to the House ethics committee for full-scale investigations, according to its first publicly released report. The OCE was created last year as part of...
Roll Call: Rules OK’d for New Ethics Office
The Office of Congressional Ethics moved closer to its first investigations on Friday, approving a package of rules and procedures, including how the panel will accept allegations against lawmakers. Following a public hearing to review the proposed guidelines, which include a code of conduct for board members and aides...
Roll Call: Wise Named Top Ethics Office Aide
The Office of Congressional Ethics has tapped a former Justice Department attorney as its top staffer. Leo Wise will serve as staff director and chief counsel.
The American Prospect: TAP talks with David Skaggs and Porter Goss, the Democratic and Republican co-chairs of the newly formed Office of Congressional Ethics.
Former Reps. David Skaggs and Porter Goss were recently named co-chairs of the new Office of Congressional Ethics by House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader John Boehner. The office is meant to act as a way for private citizens to express complaints about the House to...