January 26, 2011 - OCE Referral Regarding Rep. Crowley

OCE Referral Regarding Rep. Crowley (PDF 1.5MB)

On November 3, 2010, the OCE transmitted a referral to the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct of the United States House of Representatives regarding Representative Joseph Crowley.

Nature of Review

H.R. 4173, formally known as the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 (the “Financial Reform Bill”) was reported out of the Committee on Financial Services on the afternoon of December 2, 2009. The Financial Reform Bill was passed by the House on December 11, 2009. During that nine-day interim period, Representative Crowley held four fundraising events for his congressional and leadership campaign committees. At two fundraising events, all attendees represented entities or were individuals registered to lobby on the Financial Reform Bill. Further, Representative Crowley’s professional fundraiser offered one-on-one meetings between Representative Crowley and entities registered to lobby on the Financial Reform Bill during the nine-day period noted above.

If Representative Crowley solicited or accepted contributions in a manner which gave the appearance that special treatment or access was being provided to donors or the appearance that the contributions were linked to an official act, then he may have violated House Rules and Standards of Conduct.

OCE Recommendation

The Board of the Office of Congressional Ethics recommended that the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct further review the above allegations because there is a substantial reason to believe that Representative Crowley solicited or accepted contributions in a manner which gave the appearance that special treatment or access was provided to donors or that contributions were linked to an official act.

Committee Conclusion

On January 26, 2011, the Committee determined not to take further action regarding this matter and adopted the Committee staff recommendation to dismiss the matter and consider it closed.