News Release
Congressman Bob Etheridge
North Carolina

January 4, 2005

                                       Contact: Sara Lang
                                       Phone: (202) 225-4531

Etheridge Decries Republicans' Attack on Ethics

WASHINGTON - With the 109th Congress just underway, the House Republican leadership today pushed through changes to weaken the ethical standards to which Members of Congress are held and make it more difficult for ethics complaints to be investigated. The changes, which were passed as part of the 109th Congress Rules Package, will stifle ethics investigations and weaken ethics enforcement by permitting either party to stonewall an investigation of an ethics complaint. These changes come on the heels of investigations by the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct of Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas.

"As we take the oath of office today, Members of Congress accept not only a public office but the most sacred public trust," Etheridge said. "It is disgraceful that on this first day of the 109th Congress, the first action pushed through by the Republican leadership is to attack that public trust by weakening the standards of ethics. These rule changes are designed to ensure that no ethics complaints see the light of day. These rule changes are based on politics of power and cynicism. The people of this country deserve better."

The Republican provisions make it far more difficult to get an ethics complaint investigated by the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct by requiring a majority vote of the committee, which is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, to pursue a formal investigation. The current rules keep a case pending in the event of a tie vote. The Republican provisions would also change the rules to eliminate the 45-day deadline for action by the committee on any complaint before them. Under these changes, Republicans or Democrats could stonewall any ethics complaint simply by running out the clock for 45 days. The changes also allow a simple majority of the committee to pull the plug on the complaints before they even have a chance to find out the facts of the case.

Public interest groups, including Judicial Watch, Public Citizen, the Campaign Legal Center, Public Citizen, Citizens for Responsibility for Ethics in Washington and the Center for Responsive Politics, oppose these ethics changes.

"I support strong ethics reforms to root out corruption, punish violators of the public trust and restore honor and dignity to the people's House," Etheridge said.

This is not the first attempt the House Republican leadership has made to weaken the rules of ethics that operate in the House of Representatives. In November, House Republicans voted to weaken their own ethics rule requiring Leaders to step down from their leadership post if indicted for a felony. Only after months of pressure did Republicans finally reverse themselves late last night. Last night, Republicans abandoned their initial proposal to abolish the bedrock of ethics standards, which allows lawmakers to be admonished for bringing discredit to the House even if their behavior was not covered by a specific regulation.

   
   
   
   

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