Sneak Attack on Congressional Ethics

Washington, DC – When the new Congress is sworn in Tuesday, one of the first orders of business will be to adopt rules for the 115th Congress, including severe cut backs in the independence of the Office of Congressional Ethics.

The following statement is attributed to League president, Chris Carson:

“Gutting the independent ethics office is exactly the wrong way to start a new Congress. Speaker Ryan should be ashamed of himself and his leadership group that are pushing this through the House. This opens the door for special interest corruption just as the new Congress considers taxes and major infrastructure spending. We all know the so-called House Ethics Committee is worthless for anything other than a whitewash -- sweeping corruption under the rug. That's why the independent Office of Congressional Ethics has been so important. The OCE works to stop corruption and that's why Speaker Ryan is cutting its authority. Speaker Ryan is giving a green light to congressional corruption.”