Press Releases
Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami
202-226-7616
03/03/2008
Pelosi Letter to Boehner on Ethics
Washington, D.C. –Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent the following
letter on Friday to House Republican Leader John Boehner on ethics reform. The
Speaker indicates her willingness to consider changes proposed by the
Republicans and invites Leader Boehner to meet with her to discuss ways to
improve the operation of the House ethics process.
February 29, 2008
The Honorable John A. Boehner
Republican Leader
United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Mr. Leader:
Thank you very much for the suggestions you offered during
our recent discussion for making the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct
more transparent and accountable. I look
forward to continuing to work towards this goal with you on a bipartisan basis.
Yesterday afternoon, as the House was preparing to consider
the ethics reforms developed by the bipartisan Capuano-Smith committee, Mr.
Smith unveiled an entirely new plan whose provisions were never considered in
the bipartisan process. Some of the
efforts at transparency contained in the new Smith proposal are similar to
those you mentioned in our earlier conversation. Others go far beyond anything discussed,
either by us or by the Capuano-Smith committee during its months of
deliberations.
As I indicated during our discussion, I am pleased to
consider additional changes to the ethics process beyond those contained in the
plan developed by the bipartisan committee, which we plan to bring to the floor
soon.
In addition, I would hope that we could soon schedule a
meeting between us and Chairwoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones and Ranking Member Doc
Hastings of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, as a constructive
step towards identifying ways of expanding the transparency and accountability
of the ethics process.
best wishes,
Speaker of the House