Oct 1, 2004 -- Campaign Legal Center Applauds DeLay Reprimand

Press Contact: Mark Glaze
202-271-0982

The Campaign Legal Center applauded the House Ethics Committee for its extraordinary reprimand of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) in a 62-page report released last night. The Legal Center is a non-partisan government watchdog group that works for strong enforcement of the nation's campaign finance and ethics laws.

The Legal Center formally requested the Committee's investigation on December 3, 2003 after press reports indicated that unnamed persons had offered "bribes and promises" to Rep. Nick Smith (R-MI) in an unsuccessful attempt to win his "yay" vote on Medicare prescription drug legislation passed in late November. The Committee commenced a full investigation shortly thereafter.

The Legal Center also urged the Justice Department to determine whether the federal bribery statute - which forbids offering anything of value in exchange for official action - had been violated. Press reports indicated the FBI conducted interviews in the matter, but the status of the investigation is unknown. The Legal Center's letters to the Ethics Committee and the Justice Department can be found here: http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/press-1064.html

The Commiittee found that Mr. DeLay violated House rules by explicitly offering to endorse Mr. Smith's son in his race for Congress if Smith would switch his vote on the Medicare legislation. It also found that Rep. Candice Smith (R-MI) had acted improperly by threatening not to support Mr. Smith's son if he refused to change his position on the legislation. And it reprimanded Mr. Smith himself for making statements that relied on "speculation and exaggeration" and for failing to cooperate fully with the Committee's investigation.

Mark Glaze, director of the Center's Government Ethics Program, lauded the decision.

"We're glad the House Ethics Committee acted unanimously and firmly in finding that the kind of pressure Mr. DeLay and Ms. Miller applied to Mr. Smith is flatly improper.

"Open threats and attempted bribery of a Member of Congress cross the line and are completely inappropriate, and the Committee acknowledged that. And those activities are substantively different from traditional friendly persuasion and vote-trading.

"This is the second time Mr. DeLay has been reprimanded by the Committee in five years. That suggests an unfortunate pattern in Mr. DeLay's way of doing business. And it supplies one more reason for the Committee to seriously investigate whether Mr. DeLay also acted improperly in his leadership of the fundraising committees TRMPAC and ARMPAC."

The Legal Center assembled, and is helping to lead, an ideologically diverse coalition of government watchdog groups working for meaningful reform of congressional ethics oversight rules.

Click here to read the Ethics Committee's report.

Click here to view the congressional ethics coalition's press release.