Rep. Steve Stockman is facing an ethics inquiry after a series of Sunlight reports on the Texas Republican's questionable campaign finance practices.
Continue readingMaxine Waters gets promotion despite ethics questions
Congresswoman Maxine Waters will serve in the top Democratic position in the House Financial Services Committee, despite uncertain ethics, a past Office of Government Ethics (OGE) investigation, and a history of questionable fundraising.
Continue readingEmerson was in formal talks with electric co-op days after reelection
On Nov. 19, nine business days after she won reelection with 72 percent of the vote, Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., began final negotiations for a new job with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, official documents show.
According to ethics rules set in place meant to avoid conflict of interest, Members of Congress are required to file disclosures with the House Ethics Committee and the Senate Office of Public Records within three business days after they begin to negotiate for a future job while they are still in Congress. However, the definition of "negotiation" is left ambiguous and leaves ...
“It’s left up to the members”
My colleague Anu Narayanswamy has written on House disbursements; interestingly, they figure in a footnote of Rep. Charles Rangel's defense against the charges leveled against him by the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct:
Members traditionally exercise broad discretion to determine what activities lie within the scope of their official duties. See 123 Cong. Rec. 5900 (daily ed. Mar. 2, 1977) (statement of Rep. Hamilton) (“There are essentially no rules and regulations” that define what is appropriately an official expense. “It is left up to the Members.”). The Standards Committee does not second-guess the reasonable judgments of a Member ...Continue reading
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