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PRESS

February 27, 2008

CREW Sends Letter to all Members of the House Urging Strong Ethics Reform

House Ethics, Ethics, Congressional Ethics, House, Press Releases

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sent a letter to all members of the House of Representatives urging them to support H.R. 4239, establishing a House ethics commission, rather than H. Res. 895, the resolution proposed by the Democratic members of the Special Ethics Task Force.

While the Special Ethics Task Force admirably has worked to create a process to improve ethics enforcement in the House of Representatives, the Task Force resolution is missing two critical elements -- the new Office of Congressional Ethics proposed by the Task Force would not have subpoena power and would not accept complaints from outsiders.

H.R. 4239, introduced last session by Reps. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Zack Space (D-OH), creates an independent ethics office, gives the office subpoena power and creates a formal process for reviewing complaints from outside groups. This is the solution the House needs to address the inadequate ethics enforcement that has haunted the House for the past decade and contributed to public dissatisfaction with Congress.

Click here to read CREW's letter.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a non-profit legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public officials accountable for their actions. For more information, please visit www.citizensforethics.org or contact David Merchant at 202.408.5565 or dmerchant@citizensforethics.org