House OKs independent ethics board

14 Mar 2008 // An independent ethics board created by the House of Representatives this week is meant to put some teeth into a self-policing process that has been all-but-dormant for years.

The new Office of Congressional Ethics is the first independent body with the power to launch ethics investigations against representatives and their staffers.

The six-member board, which will be split equally between Republican and Democratic appointees, will have the power to investigate ethics allegations if at least one board member from each party agrees. After an investigation, a majority board vote could send the matter for further action to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct — the long-standing ethics committee.

Previously, the House ethics committee only would investigate complaints made by other House members. After contentious ethics investigations of House Speakers Jim Wright and Newt Gingrich in the 1980s and 1990s, the panel reached an informal truce and has rarely recommended disciplinary action against members.

The independent ethics board offers a way to jump-start the ethics process, says Ellen Miller of the Sunlight Foundation, a non-partisan good-government group.

"Whether it will be successful remains to be seen," Miller said. "It is not as strong, it is not as independent as it might be. But nonetheless, it does represent that Congress knows it has a real problem in policing itself when it comes to ethics violations."

Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington called it a "paper tiger" because it will have no power to require witnesses to testify and has no requirement to review outside complaints.

"It seems like they've just created a new layer of bureaucracy," says Sloan, a former federal prosecutor. "It just further insulates members because all the board can do is go to the ethics committee. Nothing's changed there."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders pushed the independent ethics board through a reluctant House — a procedural vote on the board prevailed by only one vote Tuesday — as a way to show they are fighting the "culture of corruption" they used as a campaign issue in 2006 against Republicans.

The ethics panel "represents what I believe is necessary for us to convey to the American people what we owe them: our best effort to have this Congress live up to the highest ethical standard," Pelosi said in the House before the vote.

Three congressmen have been convicted on federal corruption charges in the past six years, and two current House members are under indictment. The House ethics committee began investigations of the five only after they or their associates were indicted.

In the case of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., the committee didn't begin a probe until he had resigned and began serving a prison term. And the committee launched an investigation of Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio, after Traficant's 2002 conviction on bribery charges. The committee recommended that the full House vote to expel Traficant, which it did.

One of the current indicted congressmen, Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., voted for the independent ethics board. The other, Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., did not vote.

It's unclear whether the independent ethics board will be up and running before this year's elections.

Spokesmen for Pelosi and House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Wednesday that they didn't know when members would be appointed to the board. The rules prohibit the board from referring a matter to the ethics committee during the 60 days before a congressional election.