Common Cause praises appointment of independent counsel in Waters case

Common Cause commended leaders of the House Ethics Committee today for engaging an independent counsel to complete the committee’s investigation of Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Ca.

“The potential violations of House rules in this case were too important to be abandoned,” said Bob Edgar, president of the non-profit government watchdog group. “The committee has proven unable to proceed credibly however, so the appointment of an independent counsel was more than warranted.”

Edgar added that House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi should follow the Ethics Committee’s action with other actions to strengthen ethics enforcement.

A good first step, he said, would be to increase the role of the independent Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). Common Cause was a leader in the creation of the OCE, Edgar noted, and its performance to date “certainly justifies increasing its authority.”

Common Cause was part of a coalition of reform and public interest groups that earlier on Wednesday called on the Ethics Committee to appoint an independent counsel for the Waters investigation.