Senate Nixes New Ethics Violations Office

[deadparrot]

WASHINGTON - The Senate on Tuesday rejected the notion that it could not discipline itself, defeating a proposal to create an office to investigate possible ethics violations.

Senators rejected the idea of an Office of Public Integrity by a 67-30 vote as they moved toward a Wednesday vote on legislation to tighten rules and laws covering congressional contacts with lobbyists. With Congress trying to restore its scandal-tainted reputation before the fall election, passage is a near-certainty.

Opposition to the new office was led by members of the existing ethics committee. They insisted that the current system of self-policing was working fine and the proposed office would duplicate their work.

It's "off-target and unnecessary," said Sen. George Voinovich (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, chairman of the six-member ethics committee. "It will simply replicate the tasks that the ethics committee does every day."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060329/ap_on_go_co/congress_ethics

[paul_fromatlanta]

1. They don't follow up on the ethics violations they have now

I'm not sure what good another office would do...

[babylonsister]

2. Wait til the DeLay/Abramoff/Frist shit hits the fan again, then we'll

review how ethical they are. :eyes: If there's not a problem, why was it brought up in the first place? Again, we know who they're out to benefit, and it's not the citizens of this country.

[NanceGreggs]

3. Huh?

"It will simply replicate the tasks that the ethics committee does every day."


Is it even physically possible to replicate nothing?

[AndyA]

4. It's shit like this that really pisses me off!

You can't expect ANYONE to discipline or regulate themselves! It's just not natural.

Things like this should be put before a vote of the people. And let's add salary increases as well. If they do a good job, they get a raise. If not, no mo money, honey!

Every one of them need to be voted out of office. We need a fresh start with people who will do what they're supposed to do!

[MichiganVote]

5. Ethics in Congress? What a concept!

[rodeodance]

6. well, looks like the "the cloud of doubt and suspicion " is still there.

...."It's very difficult for us to investigate ourselves," said Sen. Susan Collins (news, bio, voting record), R-Maine, chairman of the Senate
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and co-sponsor of the amendment with the committee's Democratic leader, Sen.
Joe Lieberman, D-Conn.

The new office, she said, "would remove the cloud of doubt and suspicion that often hangs over members of Congress unfairly."

With the approval rating of Congress down to about 25 percent, said Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., "shouldn't we do what we can to fix either a real or imagined problem that we have with the people that we serve?"

Collins' own committee this month rejected the idea of the ethics office, reflecting the strong resistance to what some saw as an attempt to undermine the constitutional duty of lawmakers to set their own rules. Before the proposal went to the full Senate, Collins changed it to reduce the powers of an ethics office, assuring that the ethics committee would retain authority over investigations and could overrule the office. The proposal was rejected nonetheless.

The Senate approved, by 84-13, a proposal by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, to end the practice of secret "holds" in which a single senator can block action on legislation.