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Klobuchar and Freshman Senators Call for Stronger Ethics Reform

July 25, 2007

(Washington, D.C.) – In an effort to highlight the need for stronger ethics reform, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) joined her freshman colleagues at a press conference today in the U.S. Capitol. The eight Senators outlined their optimism for change and their disappointment in the obstructionism shown by their Republican colleagues.

“We all share a simple American idea of fairness: the ideas that all people should be on equal footing in the halls of Congress. But business-as-usual has meant a playing field tilted toward special interests and against the middle class. The people can’t be on equal footing unless this new Congress delivers real, meaningful ethics reform,” commented Klobuchar at today’s event. 

Klobuchar arrived in Washington with a pledge to pass ethics reform, making it the subject of her first floor speech.  The legislation that passed in January with strong bipartisan support was hailed as the most sweeping ethics reform in Congress since the Watergate era. 

Almost six months later, this historic legislation has been caught in the machinery of “business-as-usual.”  Klobuchar today called on Congress to act immediately to move the legislation forward and onto the President’s desk.

“Business as usual doesn’t only generate bad policy and wasteful spending. It also erodes public trust in the integrity of our government institutions, our elected leaders and the law-making process itself. We all have a stake in reform,” said Klobuchar.

Klobuchar was joined today by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Bob Casey (D-PA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Jon Tester (D-MT), Jim Webb (D-VA), and Sheldon Whitehouse (I-RI).

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