The House of eternal ethics investigations
WASHINGTON— The House Committee on Ethics is so backlogged that it is taking years to resolve cases. The panel operates with absolutely no deadlines.
Because of the backlog— and no pressure for swift resolutions— lawmakers are left with potentially damaging allegations hanging over them with no end in sight, including three from Illinois: Rep. Bobby Rush and Rep. Luis Gutierrez, both Democrats, and Rep. Aaron Schock, a Republican.
The Ethics Committee “has a license to delay forever,” Meredith McGehee, a congressional ethics watchdog and the policy director for the Campaign Legal Center told me.
Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., was a rare exception from the slow pace of inaction. In November 2013, the Ethics Committee closed it probe of Roskam, finding “insufficient evidence” that a trip to Taiwan he took with his wife, paid for by the Chinese Culture University in Taipei, was improper. The matter was wrapped up in a few months.
The Illinois members with outstanding cases come from districts so heavily Republican or Democratic that their re-elections on Nov. 4 against nominal opponents were foregone conclusions. Lingering ethics issues had nothing to do with the outcomes: Rush won with 72.7 percent of the vote; Gutierrez with 77.9 percent and Schock with 74.8 percent. Roskam, whose case ended, won with 67.2 percent of the vote.
But for lesser political figures in competitive districts, the delay could be a political problem.
Unless a member retires or is defeated, the allegations remain in the Ethics Committee pipeline and usually are routinely reauthorized from one Congress to the next.
The pace of cases headed to the ethics committee picked up in recent years, due to the creation of the semi-independent Office of Congressional Ethics that opened for business on March 11, 2008. Having the OCE around may have spurred the committee to be a bit more active on its own.
The OCE has the authority to review allegations of possible misconduct of House members and staff. Unlike the House Ethics Committee, where only a member can file a complaint, any member of the public can bring a concern to the OCE, and cases often stem from probes by news organizations.
The OCE is overseen by an eight-member, bipartisan board. House Speaker John Boehner, ROhio, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have to agree on each appointee. Former Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., is on the board. When she was in the House, she served on the ethics committee.
The OCE operates on an 89-day deadline, so cases do not hang around forever. The OCE conducts an investigation, but without subpoena power, a probe can only go so far.
The OCE does not pass judgment on a case. If the OCE board votes that there is “substantial reason” to believe some violation of laws or House rules occurred, the investigative is referred to the ethics committee and that is made public.
Formany lawmakers, that’s when the process slows to a near halt.
That’s because the ethics committee, which has subpoena power, has to also investigate. There are only five investigators to handle the current backlog of about 30 cases.
Boehner and Pelosi each directly appoint five members to the committee.
Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., has the dubious distinction of having the oldest publicly disclosed ethics committee case. He is accused of sexual harassment. The committee last said anything about the Hast- ings matter on Jan. 11, 2012.
OnMonday, the ethics panel for the first time made public allegations against Rush by announcing it is continuing its probe of Rush receiving free rent at a South Side office worth $365,040 over 20 years. The committee received its referral on Rush from the OCE on June 10.
The case stems from a Chicago Sun-Times/BGA investigation; stories were published in December.
In March, the ethics panel announced a review of allegations into whether an agreement Gutierrez made with his former chief of staff, Doug Scofield, was proper under House rules. In June, the OCE report was released, and we learned at issue is whether Gutierrez broke House rules or federal law in paying Scofield $590,000 over 10 years to advise his congressional office.
At issue for Schock is whether in 2012 he improperly solicited $25,000 for a super PAC to help Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., then embroiled in a GOP primary with Rep. Don Manzullo, R-Ill. The committee’s last peep on the Schock matter was Dec. 14, 2012.
Since then, Schock has not been contacted by any investigators from the committee, said his spokesman, Ben Cole. “He is not under an ethics investigation. This case is closed.”
Gutierrez spokesman Doug Rivlin said no one from the ethics committee has been in touch.
The committee tells targets— but not the public— when a probe is concluded.
The slowness to resolve a case “is a disservice to the member,” McGehee said.
Someone needs to figure out how to get these cases done faster.