Statement of Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer At Press Conference urging House Republican Leaders to Support OCE

The OCE was created under the leadership of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2008 following the complete collapse of the House ethics enforcement process in the previous Congress.

The OCE was established to serve as an action-forcing mechanism to ensure that the House Ethics Committee considers and addresses serious ethics matters and to ensure that the ethics enforcement process is more transparent and publicly accountable. The OCE has effectively carried out its mission and has done precisely what it was created to do.

It is essential to the integrity and public credibility of the House that the OCE be continued in the new Congress with its authority, powers and funding intact and without any weakening or undermining changes made to the Office.

Prior to the establishment of the OCE, potential ethics violations all too often would disappear into the House Ethics Committee never to be seen again, without public explanation or accountability. This will no doubt happen again if the OCE is eliminated, gutted or defunded.

The 2010 House elections did not provide a mandate for backtracking on effective ethics enforcement and that is certainly not what the more than 100 new House members came to Congress to do as one of their first acts.

This matter is within the control of Speaker designee Boehner and Majority Leader-designee Cantor. We are joining today with nine other organizations to urge Speaker-designee Boehner and the Majority Leader-designee Cantor to continue the OCE in the next Congress without weakening or undermining this independent, essential Office.

The ten organizations joining today to support the OCE include the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, CREW, Democracy 21, Judicial Watch, League of Women Voters, National Taxpayers Union, Public Citizen, Taxpayers for Common Sense and U.S.PIRG.

There are a number of ways that the OCE can be put out of business in the next Congress and each one must be rejected.

First, when the House meets to adopt its rules, the House Republican leaders could simply leave the OCE out of the House rules package and that would kill the Office. Or they could include the OCE in the rules package but revise its authority or powers in ways that would prevent it from functioning effectively.

The rules package is subject to an up-or-down vote on the whole package, with no opportunity to amend it, at the outset of the new Congress. Therefore, if the rules package prepared by Speaker designee-Boehner and Majority Leader-designee Cantor eliminates OCE or undermines its effectiveness, a vote for the rules package would be a vote to kill or gut the OCE. And that would be the way more than 100 new Representatives would start out their careers in Congress.

Second, House Republican leaders could continue the OCE as it is in the House rules package but then set up a task force to “review” the Office and recommend revisions. Such revisions adopted by the House at a later time could cripple the OCE.

An example of a revision that would cripple the OCE is found in the House resolution introduced in this Congress by Representative Marcia Fudge (D-OH). The resolution includes a proposal to require the OCE to receive a sworn complaint from someone with personal knowledge of a violation before the OCE could even open a preliminary investigation.  This is an impossible standard to meet and as a practical matter would shut down the OCE.

Third, House Republican leaders could continue the OCE without changes in its authority or powers but greatly reduce its funding. That also would cripple the ability of the Office to do its job.

Each of these options would have the same effect of ending the OCE as an effective ethics enforcement body and would return us to an ethics enforcement process in the House that has repeatedly failed citizens, the country and the House as an institution.