Pelosi to Back Allowing Outsiders to File Ethics Complaints

Pelosi Expected to Back Proposal to Allow Outsiders to File Ethics Complaints
By Susan Ferrechio
The Congressional Quarterly
Monday 04 June 2007

In the summer of 2005, FBI agents were recovering stacks of cold cash from the freezer of Rep. William J. Jefferson.

About the same time, Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla. (1995-2006), was sending inappropriate e-mail messages to former House pages, and Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif. (1991-2005), was taking bribes in exchange for steering millions in government contracts to two defense firms from his perch on the House Appropriations Committee.

"Our ethics system has been broken," said a frustrated Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, who sits on the 10-member, bipartisan ethics committee. "We got nothing on any of those cases. Not even a hint. If we had, we would have opened an investigation."

But they didn't get a hint and didn't open any probes.

Monday's indictment of Jefferson, D-La., came before Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., could publicly announce her decision to start permitting anyone - not just members of Congress - to file ethics complaints.

Pelosi's aides said she had quietly signed off on that recommendation and another proposal that a panel of four congressional outsiders be set up to decide which complaints merit investigation by the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, as the self-policing ethics panel is formally called.

"This is gigantic," said Sarah Dufendach, a lobbyist for Common Cause, a watchdog group that has called for congressional ethics reform. "If they really do this, it will be a very serious step forward."

An eight-member, bipartisan task force, led by Rep. Michael E. Capuano, D-Mass., had recommended the changes.

Pelosi originally assigned the task force the job of determining whether an outside group should take over the ethics process completely, an idea that the group determined would be unconstitutional.

The ethics committee would not be required to follow any of the recommendations made by an outside commission, and the commission would lack subpoena authority, according to those familiar with the proposal.

"I think that is an acceptable approach," said former Rep. Martin Frost, D-Texas (1979-2005). "I think members should discipline themselves. They should have the final say."

Under the proposal, the new investigative commission would be made up of two members appointed by Pelosi and two by House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio. Appointees would be paid for their work and would likely be tapped from a pool of retired judges, prosecutors and others connected with law enforcement, say those familiar with the plan. The commission also could include a former House member.

"This would be a streamlined way of bringing complaints to the committee," Green said. "Someone would be able to go to this task force and say, 'I've heard this or I've heard that.' Right now, we're not getting any of that."
Unpopular Idea

Since 1997, House rules have allowed only sitting members to file ethics complaints. But members have rarely done so, settling instead into a kind of détente to avoid the partisan ethics warfare that was seen in the mid-1990s.

The committee's historical data show that just one complaint has been filed by a member in the past six years, and just two have been filed since 1997.

Typically, the media have been the first to disclose potential member misconduct, forcing the ethics committee to initiate its investigations into the most publicized cases, including those involving former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas (1985-2006).

If the House adopts the proposal put forward by Capuano's task force, Dufendach said, "then the truce is over. If anyone can file, members can't say, 'If you don't file on me, I won't file on you.' "

But passing such a rules change will most likely prove difficult. Many House Republicans and Democrats seem to abhor the idea, seeing it as opening the ethics complaint process to partisan attacks.

"Both parties will rue the day they let any Tom, Dick and Harry file a complaint," said Republican Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho. "Ninety percent of them are going to be based on politics."

"It is going to become a political tool," agreed Rep. Steven C. LaTourette, R-Ohio, a former member of the ethics committee. "And that is not what it is supposed to be about."

"It's not popular," added House Natural Resources Chairman Nick J. Rahall II, D-W.Va.

Pelosi, however, may have little choice but to push the proposal forward - especially with Republicans seeking to force the House to take the first step this week toward expelling Jefferson.

Pelosi created the Capuano-led task force shortly after the 2006 elections, in which Democrats won back the majority in the House in part by promising to "drain the swamp" of political corruption.

Capuano's involvement may help sell the plan as well. Tough and matter-of-fact, he is well-liked by other members and is not seen as a reformer. In fact, he spoke out against a stringent lobbying overhaul bill (HR 2316) before ultimately voting for it after a two-year revolving-door ban was removed.

Republicans also may have difficulty rejecting a proposal endorsed by the task force's ranking GOP member, House Judiciary Committee ranking member Lamar Smith of Texas. Republican leaders said they have yet to examine the proposal.

Republicans and Democrats acknowledge that if the rules change makes it to the floor for a vote, it will be difficult for any member to publicly oppose it.

"There will be grumbling beforehand," Rahall said. "But when it comes to putting votes up on that board, I expect it will pass."