Jean Schmidt

House Ethics Office Launches Six New Probes

Susan Crabtree | April 25, 2011, 5:24PM

Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH)

The House's independent ethics office launched six new investigations of lawmakers' potential ethical misbehavior in this first quarter of the year.

The Office of Congressional Ethics released its end-of-quarter report Monday as required by law, noting that it had commenced six preliminary reviews and five secondary reviews of allegations already under investigation. It also voted to terminate one review.

The office does not release the names of lawmakers under scrutiny, but the name of one of the lawmakers, Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio), leaked earlier this year.

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Ethics

Watchdogs: Ethics Committee In Turmoil Over Partisan Staff

Susan Crabtree | March 15, 2011, 6:00AM

Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA)

Government watchdogs are condemning a decision to allow a Republican office to become a safe haven for supposedly nonpartisan Ethics Committee staff, saying it's one of the leading reasons why the panel is so dysfunctional.

The House Ethics Committee, led by Rep. Jo Bonner (R-AL), has virtually shut down amid partisan recriminations and staff sniping over last year's handling of the case against Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA). Last week TPM reported that at least one of the panel's attorneys who had been suspended for allegedly mishandling the case had soft-landed on the GOP side of the House Natural Resources Committee, run by Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA).

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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."

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