What's New
In the first two days of the new Congress, the House of
Representatives overwhelmingly passed strong new rules to address the
scandals that tarnished the last Congress. The new rules include bans
on gifts from lobbyists and the use of corporate jets, tighter rules on
travel and some measure of accountability on earmarks. The Senate bill
on this issue passed on Jan. 18.
For these new rules to be meaningful, Congress must have
effective enforcement. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) has
appointed a bipartisan task force to consider whether Congress should
create an independent enforcement process similar to systems in almost
half the states. The task force is chaired by Rep. Michael Capuano and
is to report back by May 1, 2007.
Background
Scandals over the last two years have revealed a number of cases of
overt corruption. Former Congressmen Duke Cunningham (Calif.) and
Robert Ney (Ohio) were caught trading votes for campaign contributions
and other bribes. Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff landed in jail for
masterminding efforts using campaign contributions to steer public
funds to his pet projects. Rep William Jefferson (La.) is under
investigation after the FBI found $90,000 in cash in his freezer and
former Rep. Tom DeLay is still defending himself against corruption
charges. Several top legislative and White House aides have already
pled guilty to corruption charges and this may only be the tip of the
iceberg.
Enforcement is key. The current system is broken.
Overseeing one’s own colleagues is difficult under any circumstances,
but oversight in a partisan-charged environment like Congress is, as we
have now seen, impossible. This is not to say that members of Congress
are any less capable than others to self-police, no one self-polices
well. In the Executive Branch there is an Office of Government Ethics.
Businesses have outside auditors. Congress needs independent and
professional oversight and enforcement of the rules.
Several
proposals, such as the Office of Public Integrity put forth in the
House by Reps. Shays (Conn.) and Meehan (Mass.), or an independent
ethics commission as detailed in a bill by Reps. Castle (Del.) and
Platts (Penn.) create workable models of how such entities would
operate.
