Jan 18, 2008 -- CQ Today: Ethics Task Force Recommendations Pose Challenges for House Leaders
By: Kathleen Hunter

House Democratic leaders have not figured out how to complete an important bit of unfinished business: recommendations from their own ethics task force.

The task force suggested creating a new, independent entity to vet complaints against House members.

If that wasn't enough of a departure from the status quo, there's also some sentiment in the ranks to go a step further and give the new entity subpoena power.

Now the leadership is trying to gauge whether adding subpoena power could provoke enough opposition from other lawmakers to sink the task force recommendations altogether.

Moderate Republicans Michael N. Castle of Delaware and Todd R. Platts of Pennsylvania are the authors of an ethics proposal (HR 97) that, among other things, seeks subpoena power for outside investigators.

Two Democrats — Christopher S. Murphy of Connecticut and Baron P. Hill of Indiana — have introduced similar proposals (HR 1754, HR 4239), and say they will look for an opportunity to append subpoena language to the leadership task force's measure (H Res 895).

"This is definitely a priority issue for many of the new members," Murphy said.

One of the campaign themes Democrats used in their successful 2006 effort to take control of Congress was combating corruption and strengthening ethics rules.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , a California Democrat, declared her intention to form the task force the day after the election.

A Pelosi aide said Jan. 18 that a decision about how to proceed likely would be made in the next week.

The task force's Democratic members, headed by Michael E. Capuano , D-Mass., issued a series of recommendations that included:

• Creating a new Office of Congressional Ethics to conduct preliminary investigations and make recommendations to the internal House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.

• Allowing no House members or lobbyists to join the six-member board that will direct the office's nonpartisan staff .

• Keeping unchanged the House rule permitting only members to file complaints.

Republican Misgivings

The four Republicans on Pelosi's task force refused to endorse the recommendations released Dec. 19 but would not provide specifics about what they disagreed with.

Republican leaders have signaled wariness of the proposal but have not offered their own version.

"They're going to face an inherent set of conflicting priorities, because it's clear that you have a lot of Republicans who think this goes too far," said Norman J. Ornstein. a congressional scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

Ornstein supports both the proposal as it stands and the concept of subpoena power. He predicts that House leaders may not allow amendments for fear of a deluge of "poison pill" proposals.

"They may go forward without any kind of plan for opening it up to these ideas or suggestions because of the difficult nature of it," agreed Castle. "Some of us believe we should go further with it."

Watchdog groups say subpoena power is essential if the ethics process is to be improved and not just changed.

"I'm still very concerned that the proposal that came out will not make a very big difference in the long run," said Meredith McGehee, policy director for the Campaign Legal Center .

Despite the tough balancing act for Pelosi and other Democratic leaders, McGehee predicted that the House will act soon.

"I don't think they'd want this to sit out there much longer," she said.