Press Releases
Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami
202-226-7616
12/19/2007
Pelosi Statement on Capuano Report of Special Task Force on Ethics Enforcement
Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following
statement this evening on a report released today by Congressman Mike Capuano,
Chairman of the Special Task Force on Ethics Enforcement. The task force
recommended establishing an independent ethics enforcement entity to review
violations of House ethics standards.
“I welcome the report issued today by Mr. Capuano and his
colleagues on the bipartisan Ethics Task Force.
I thank them for the many hours of reflection and discussion they have
devoted to this issue. They have performed a valuable service for the House.
“This proposal is the third major initiative the New
Direction Congress has undertaken this year to strengthen our ethics rules and
laws. On the first day of the 110th Congress,
Democrats changed House rules to tighten ethics standards. Next, as part of our first 100 hours effort,
we passed landmark lobbying reform legislation, the Honest Leadership and Open
Government Act, which independent ethics groups called “historic.” Today, the task force has released a proposal
to create an outside, independent ethics review panel that, in the words of
U.S. PIRG, ‘would fundamentally change the way in which ethics complaints are
initiated and handled.’
“The Democratic leadership is committed to a continuing review of our ethics processes and our ethics rules and we will make further changes if necessary. I look forward to hearing from the other members of the Ethics Task Force and to working on a bipartisan basis to achieve real reform.”