Today, Common Cause and other government accountability groups urged every member of the U.S. House of Representatives to strengthen the independent Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) and make the office permanent. Even if Congress does not codify the OCE into law at this time, the groups stress the importance of maintaining the office’s continued existence and the importance of not weakening it in the 119th Congress. The letter emphasizes overwhelming public support for increased ethics and accountability measures and touts the success of the OCE over its first 15 years.

“Americans expect and deserve accountability from their Representatives in Washington, and for 15 years the Office of Congressional Ethics has provided that accountability in the U.S. House of Representatives,” said Virginia Kase Solomón, President & CEO of Common Cause. “Before the Office of Congressional Ethics was created, the House Ethics Committee was seen as a place where ethics complaints were swept under the rug, and as a result, public confidence in the House withered.”

“The OCE was created in the wake a numerous ethics scandals involving Members because the House Ethics Committee for years had been unwilling and/or unable to hold Members accountable to any sort of acceptable ethical standards,” said Aaron Scherb, leitender Direktor für Gesetzgebungsangelegenheiten bei Common Cause. “It would be both short-sighted and disastrous to return to the ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ approach to ethics enforcement that would take root if the OCE were gutted or eliminated.”

Der Kongress gründete das OCE mit starker Unterstützung von Common Cause unter starkem öffentlichen Druck im Gefolge einer Reihe von Bestechungs- und Korruptionsskandalen, die zu zahlreichen Rücktritten sowie Gefängnisstrafen für Abgeordnete und Mitarbeiter des Repräsentantenhauses führten. Seit seiner Gründung im Jahr 2008 fungiert das Office of Congressional Ethics als unabhängige Kontrollinstanz, die im Repräsentantenhaus für überparteiliche Aufsicht und Rechenschaftspflicht sorgt.

Der Brief betont, dass das OCE eine fast gleich große Zahl demokratischer und republikanischer Abgeordneter zur weiteren Untersuchung überwiesen hat. Darüber hinaus wird hervorgehoben, dass das OCE dabei geholfen hat, einen fehlerhaften Ethikprozess zu reparieren und den beschädigten Ruf des US-Repräsentantenhauses wiederherzustellen.

In addition to Common Cause, the groups signing the letter include Campaign Legal Center, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Democracy 21, Issue One, Project on Government Oversight, Protect Democracy, and Public Citizen.

Um den Brief dem gesamten Haus vorzulesen, klicken Sie hier.

To read the Common Cause March 2024 report—Die kleine Lokomotive, die es konnte—on the successes of the OCE in its first 15 years, klicken Sie hier.