TPMDC Marcia Fudge
Ethics
Pelosi Punts On Gutting Ethics Office
Brian Beutler | June 18, 2010, 12:00PM
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
Will House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stand up and defend her signature "drain the swamp" ethics initiative from members of her own party? Doesn't look like it.
At her weekly press conference yesterday, I asked Pelosi whether or not she supported a move led by Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus to significantly scale back the authority of the Office of Congressional Ethics. She punted.
"At the end of each Congress we review the rules and we will review the rules as we go forward," Pelosi said. "I think that the outside ethics group is important progress to be made as far as building public confidence in what happens in Washington, DC. I sympathize with the motivation that the congresswoman has for her letter but at this time this is not the time. We will deal with it in the regular order of business at the end of the session."
Topics: Democrats, Ethics, Marcia Fudge, Nancy Pelosi, OCE, Office of Congressional Ethics, Republicans
Ethics
Nothing To See Here! Supporters Of Plan To Handcuff Ethics Panel Lay Low
Brian Beutler | June 8, 2010, 12:38PM
Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH)
Independent watchdog groups remain up in arms about a new proposal to limit the powers of an ethic panel that oversees and investigates members of Congress. But they'll have to wait a bit longer to hear back from supporters of the plan, who have been largely silent
The watchdogs say that a resolution introduced last week by Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH), and cosponsored by 19 members of the Congressional Black Caucus, would leave the Office of Congressional Ethics without any teeth: unable to initiate investigations on their own, and barred from considering most complaints filed by outside groups.
And, they say, there are conflict of interest issues as well. Many of the cosponsors of Fudge's legislation have been OCE targets. And the panel once faulted one of Fudge's top aides, Dawn Kelly Mobley, for facilitating an ethically questionable Carribean junket for CBC members several years ago, when she worked for Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones. Fudge insists she began working on her resolution before she knew Mobley was the target of an investigation.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (8) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Congressional Black Caucus, Democrats, Ethics, Marcia Fudge
Ethics
House Dem Seeks To Restrict Ethics Panel That Targeted Her Top Aide
Brian Beutler | June 3, 2010, 2:56PM
Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH)
If your chief of staff had been admonished by House Ethics investigators, would you think twice about sponsoring legislation to limit the reach of the Office of Congressional Ethics?
You might if you were Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH). Last year, following on an OCE investigation, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct admonished Fudge's Chief of Staff Dawn Kelly Mobley for actions she undertook when she had a different boss--Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH), who died in 2008. Now Fudge, along with nearly 20 other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, are seeking to rewrite the rules that govern the OCE, to prevent the panel and other congressional investigators from releasing reports or making public statements about unresolved cases.
But according to Melanie Sloan, executive director of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the proposal is much farther reaching than that and she says Fudge and her supporters are trying to shield themselves and other members of Congress from oversight.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (30) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Topics: Charlie Rangel, Democrats, Ethics, Marcia Fudge
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