Prometheus 6

Ethics: In the Eye of the Beholden?
Conflict-of-interest woes involving House and Senate members have resulted in wrist slaps and promises -- but little actual reform.
By Walter F. Roche Jr.

December 31, 2004

WASHINGTON   Faced with mounting evidence that current ethics rules do not cover new ways lobbyists have devised to win favor with members of Congress, the House ethics committee plans to unveil an array of proposed changes next year.

But the proposed changes appear likely to loosen ethics restrictions, not tighten them.

One change would let special interests begin to pay some of a representative's official operating expenses   in effect, making the member beholden for the daily activities of his or her congressional office. Another would increase the number of family members allowed to go on junkets paid for by private interests, a move seen as weakening the rules designed to keep members of Congress independent of outside groups.

The House proposals to loosen ethics restrictions parallel a lack of reform efforts on ethics issues in the Congress as a whole.

Former Senate ethics committee chairman Harry Reid (D-Nev.), now Senate minority leader, has made no apparent effort to push for the ethics review he called for last year after The Times detailed extensive financial relationships between members of Reid's family and business interests he had helped.

And this past fall, House Republicans voted to abolish a rule they had pushed for in 1993 that barred members who were under indictment on felony charges from serving in leadership positions.

The indictment rule was eliminated to protect Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), who is being investigated by a grand jury in Travis County, Texas. DeLay, whom the ethics committee admonished twice on other matters earlier this year, dismisses the inquiry as politically motivated.

"The message to members is clear," Gary Ruskin of the Congressional Accountability Project said. "The ethics committees are toothless by design."