Ethics Task Force to recommend outside office

[babylonsister]

Ethics Task Force to recommend outside office
By Susan Crabtree | Posted: 11/15/07 2:30 p.m.
November 15, 2007

After months of delay, the House Ethics Task Force has wrapped up its work and will recommend the creation of an independent ethics office within the House, a proposal Democrats expect to present for House approval in December.

Outside individuals and groups will not be allowed to file complaints against members either to the office or the ethics committee, and the panel lacks subpoena power — two provisions ethics watchdog groups have pushed for, according to an outline of the ethics proposal and knowledgeable sources.

The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) will be composed of six board members. Current House members and lobbyists will be ineligible to serve.

Reps. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) and Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the chairman and ranking member of the task force, have spent months haggling over whether to create an outside panel and what powers it would have. In recent years, and after a series of mainly Republican public corruption cases, the ethics committee has been described as a paper tiger that fails to hold members accountable for breaking House ethics rules.

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http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/ethics-task-force-to-recommend-outside-office-2007-11-15.html