On March 11, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to set up an independent office to police ethical scandals under a plan recommended by a special task force and endorsed by U.S. PIRG. We applauded Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for fulfilling a promise to clean up Congress.
In January of 2007, the House approved strong, U.S. PIRG-backed rules designed to curb the influence of lobbyists over members of Congress. The rules banned lobbyist-paid gifts and travel and required lobbyists to disclose fundraising for candidates. The House put off a decision on how to enforce the rules for nearly a year, spending 2007 setting up a task force to examine the options.
U.S. PIRG’s Gary Kalman urged Rep. Michael Capuano (Mass.), the head of the task force, to recommend a truly independent office, one that would end the current culture of “self-policing” that let lobbyist Jack Abramoff and others shower members of Congress with favors for years before the Justice Department brought them down.
Kalman, for example, wrote a report pointing out that 23 states already have similar independent panels to police ethical issues, comparing their results and recommending their best practices.
