Dear Senator:
The new Congress deserves credit for quickly and
strongly responding to the scandals of last year by passing sweeping
changes to the rules that will reduce the special access of wealthy and
powerful interests in Washington. It was a critical first step.
We
now urge you to finish the job by supporting legislation that will
ensure that the new rules will be adequately enforced. Today, we ask
you to be a co-sponsor legislation introduced by Sens. Lieberman,
Collins and Obama to enforce the rules.
Jack Abramoff’s fall
from power cannot be credited to an aggressive House or Senate ethics
enforcement process. He was turned in to the Justice Department by a
competitor turned whistle-blower. After the initial details of the case
came out, the public saw no action from the House and Senate Ethics
Committees. There was no evidence the committees initiated any probe
nor asked any questions nor made any attempt to see if members had
violated the rules and the public trust. The House Ethics Committee
was so paralyzed they failed to even convene a meeting for most of the
109th Congress.
The current system is broken. Overseeing one’s
own colleagues is difficult under any circumstances, but oversight in a
charged partisan environment like the U.S. Congress is, as we have now
seen, impossible. This is not to say that members of Congress are any
less capable than others to self-police, no one self-polices well. In
the Executive Branch there is an Office of Government Ethics.
Businesses have outside auditors. Disciplinary boards for lawyers and
doctors have strict rules regarding conflicts of interest. Congress
needs independent and professional oversight and enforcement of the
rules.
Under the bill, Congress would still maintain final
responsibility for any sanction against a member. The oversight office
would receive complaints and have authority to investigate where
evidence suggests a violation has occurred. The importance of the
office is that there will be an impartial, nonpartisan review of the
complaints.
While some have expressed concerns about the filing
of frivolous complaints, the change actually offers members better
protection against false accusations. Current practice is for outside
groups to send up unofficial and public ‘complaint’ letters with
accusations that go to the ethics committees but are never resolved.
In the last election, some members found themselves answering questions
about those unresolved accusations. The proposed system would
establish a set amount of time for handling complaints and to determine
if a complaint was frivolous. Members would then receive notification
from a nonpartisan, independent entity testifying to the fact that
there was no foundation to baseless attacks.
The ethics and
lobby reform bill adopted with almost unanimous support closed many of
the loopholes that have allowed undue influence of powerful lobbyists.
To ensure that the new rules are more than paper tigers, Congress must
also move to create outside, professional oversight to enforce the
rules and give assurance to the American people that the new Congress
will different from the last.
Sincerely,
