HR 1754: House Ethics Commission

Down from the wire:

(Washington, DC) - This morning newly-elected Democrats, led by Reps. Chris Murphy, Zack Space, Baron Hill, Paul Hodes, and Betty Sutton, urged Congress to move forward with comprehensive ethics reform by calling for a nonpartisan, independent entity that will vet, initiate, and conduct investigations.

Rep. Baron Hill has submitted his House Ethics Overhaul Bill. This was a fufillment on his promise from the 2006 election (archived here and here).

Baron explains the measure at the Hill Blog:

The House Ethics Commission Establishment Act would create an independent Ethics Commission comprised of 12 former Members of Congress who are not lobbyists – six Republicans chosen by the House Democratic leader and six Democrats chosen by the House Republican leader. This Commission would have the authority to investigate complaints of possible ethics violations by Members of Congress. The Commission would then present their findings to Congress, and the entire U.S. House of Representatives would vote on the course of disciplinary action recommended by the Commission. Any disciplinary actions suggested by the Ethics Commission must receive a majority vote by the full membership of the U.S. House in order to take effect.

This is an excellent peice of legislation to start correcting the pervasive Culture of Corruption that has settled over the Hill as the Republicans held the House since 1995. As Hill says:

People have lost faith in Congress because of the incidents of ethics violations by Members of Congress over the past few years. We must clean up Congress and prove to the American people that we are serious about enforcing the highest standards of conduct.

Absolutely. Tom Delay, Duke Cunningham, Mark Foley, Bob Ney, Jerry Lewis, John Doolittle, Rick Renzi... the list continues to expand long after the Republicans were flushed from the majority. Ethics charges aginst these men were always blocked by the leadership; we need a new system to investigate ethics in the House. I encourage all Hoosiers to contact their representative to either co-sponsor or support this bill for passage.

And the public can do more: those who take money from unethical and corrupt Congressmen should also be held accountable to the public. Here in the Ninth District, we know that all too well.