March 2005 -- Watchdog Groups Urge House Leaders to Resolve Unprecedented Ethics Crisis

Congressional Ethics Coalition
Campaign Legal Center * Center for Responsive Politics *
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington *
Common Cause * Democracy 21 * Judicial Watch *
Public Campaign * Public Citizen * PIRG

The Congressional Ethics Coalition - an ideologically diverse group of nine government watchdog groups - held a press conference on Tuesday, March 15th at the National Press Club to discuss the unprecedented breakdown in the House ethics oversight process, and to call for immediate House action to put the ethics system back on track. The group statement and individual organizations' statements are below.

Statement of the Congressional Ethics Coalition

A series of steps taken by House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and other House Republican leaders to weaken the ethics oversight process reached their logical conclusion late last week: the Ethics Committee effectively ceased to exist.

Democrats on the panel, led by Ranking Democrat Alan Mollohan (D-WV), rightly refused to accept a series of recent House rules changes that would severely undermine the Committee's ability to pursue ethics violators. The Committee's members were therefore unable to agree on a set of operating rules, and as a result, the panel is unable to conduct any business whatsoever.

Further, under House Rule 11, Section 2(a)(2), any House committee that is unable to agree on operating rules within thirty days of the date on which the panel's members are appointed is considered officially "defunct."

Click here to read the entire statment of the Congressional Ethics Coaltion.

Click here for the Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's statment.

Click here for Common Cause's statement.

Click here for Democracy 21's statement.

Click here for Public Citizen's statement.