From Common Cause (http://www.commoncause.org):
The House just voted to gut the only independent office working to enforce ethical standards in Congress.
It’s an outrageous step backwards – our elected officials cannot play both judge and jury when investigating charges against their own colleagues. Without an internal, independent watchdog enforcing ethics, politicians could simply choose to look the other way – and expect their friends to do the same for them.
There’s still a chance to save the Office of Congressional Ethics. The CLEAN Act would codify the OCE into law – making sure its power doesn’t depend on the whims of the House majority.
We deserve a strong congressional ethics watchdog in the House. Sign our petition at https://act.commoncause.org/petitions/pass-the-clean-act-for-ethics-in-congress to tell Congress to pass the CLEAN Act and commit to more accountability in government.
The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) is an independent House ethics watchdog that Common Cause and others worked to create in 2008. It helped clean up corruption and make sure members of Congress were playing by the rules.
But right now, there’s no law permanently establishing this office. It only exists in the House rules package – and has to be reauthorized every two years as new House members are elected. It also doesn’t have subpoena power – limiting its ability to enforce any ethical standards.
The rules package passed by House Republicans weakens this office. The House has made it harder to hire staff at the OCE, and implemented arbitrary term limits that would immediately remove three long-serving Democratic ethics board members – risking decades of institutional knowledge, and majorly weakening oversight in the new Congress.
The CLEAN Act would codify this office into law – strengthening the OCE and giving it real power to investigate and enforce consequences for misconduct.
If we want a government that will truly work for all of us, we must be able to stop corruption as it occurs.
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