Dear John,
A political system such as ours depends on voters believing that elected representatives are working on behalf of their constituents, not their own personal self-interest, and that will not happen in the absence of high ethical standards. Nor can we rely on those elected representatives to be solely responsible for ensuring that those standards are followed.
Voters have a right to know if elected officials are failing to adhere to ethics standards by placing their own personal financial gain over the needs of their constituents.
This right to know came under threat within days of the convening of the new Congress.
Campaign Legal Center was pleased to see the amount of press attention, in outlets such as The Washington Post and TIME Magazine, given to a specific section of House rules proposed by the new majority which had the potential for undermining the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), the only independent ethics investigative body in Congress. We hoped that a groundswell of opposition, including a letter written by CLC and signed by 24 partners, would prevent those rules from being adopted.
We were unsuccessful in stopping the new rules but highly successful in focusing attention on the issue, as evidenced by the new Democratic leader and his team now taking the steps necessary for OCE to continue functioning in this Congress.
Understanding why this is important requires an understanding of the purpose of OCE, an institution CLC has been involved with for more than a decade. Prior to the establishment of OCE in 2008, members of the House essentially policed themselves through the House Committee on Ethics, entirely composed of sitting members. Not surprisingly, the Committee did little. The push to add a layer of independent oversight gained momentum following the 2006 midterm elections when Democrats took control of the House after campaigning on ending what they called “a culture of corruption,” a catch-all phrase describing the raft of scandals engulfing Washington at the time.
A task force was appointed that recommended creating OCE, and a substantial bipartisan majority voted in favor (196 Democrats and 33 Republicans). CLC played a significant role in this process, urging Congress to create OCE and providing detailed recommendations on how it ought to be set up during testimony before the task force.
The end result was the first body authorized to investigate allegations of ethics violations not comprised of members of Congress. It was given the power to make its findings public even if the Ethics Committee declined to pursue its referrals.
During the years that followed, OCE comported itself admirably and in a nonpartisan fashion, referring nearly equal numbers of Democrats (52) and Republicans (50) to the Ethics Committee for further investigation. Contrary to the fears of its detractors, it declined on numerous occasions to investigate frivolous allegations.
Notable cases that ultimately resulted in the resignation, arrest and eventual conviction of House members include a 2009 investigation into allegations that Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) tried to bribe his way into the Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama and a 2017 investigation of insider trading allegations against Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY).
OCE’s important independent role is threatened by the new House rules, which forced three members of the OCE board, all Democrats, to resign (depriving the body of a quorum) and require all committee staff to be hired within 30 days of the rules’ adoption. If a vacancy occurs after the 30-day period, the OCE is not allowed to hire a replacement staffer until the next Congress is seated (in two years). Voters have every right to be skeptical about the motivation behind these ill-advised changes. The good news is that it appears that the Democratic Leader is fast-tracking the recruitment of new Democratic members in the face of these threats, and Republicans have signaled that OCE may be able to hire staff beyond the 30-day window.
In our view, OCE could be more effective if it were given subpoena power for third parties, if it were able to immediately publish reports about non-cooperating lawmakers and if the majority and minority leaders of the House were required to agree on board member appointees. Furthermore, OCE ought to be codified into law, which would insulate this indispensable watchdog from the kind of meddling we have just witnessed. These improvements may have to wait until the next Congress.
The task of ensuring our elected representatives adhere to basic ethical standards has never been easy. Congress has in fact sought to undermine OCE on several occasions, including an unsuccessful attempt in 2017 that was opposed by then-President Donald Trump.
Our work continues despite this challenging atmosphere. For instance, we are hopeful that the U.S. Senate will itself consider establishing an independent ethics committee similar to OCE. Over the last ten years, only three percent of investigations by the Senate Committee on Ethics, comprised of Senators themselves, have resulted in finding a senator guilty of an ethics violation.
We can strengthen our democracy by deploying commonsense rules to deter self-dealing and through independent oversight in service of accountability. That is why CLC has for years regarded ethics as one of our core areas of focus.
The nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center is dedicated to advancing democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s rights to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process.
