Four months into the new Congress, the House has yet to pass ethics reform legislation. In fact, House Democrats have not yet even settled on the ethics package they will propose. Ethics reform has been discussed and debated ad nauseam, and there’s nothing new under the sun, Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader Boehner agreed in December to create a task force to recommend a bipartisan package. That task force was originally expected to report back by March. When Pelosi actually announced the formal creation of the task force in January, May 1 was designated as the deadline for a recommendation. But that deadline passes today without any action. The Hill recently reported on the task force’s first hearing, and the question of whether Democrats will support the creation of an outside ethics review process. The House has passed some ethics reform measures, which have been enshrined in House rules. They limit the acceptance of gifts, meals, and travel. The Senate passed ethics reform legislation, but, in some cases at least, they have elected not to operate under those rules until they become law–which could take quite a while. How much have these reforms changed Washington? ABC News recently answered that question:
One can’t help but think that if this were a real priority, more would have been done. And the fact that there remains such opposition to the creation of an outside review body suggests the final recommendations aren’t likely to be all that bold. While Congress gets an ‘incomplete’ on ethics reform so far, there’s reason to worry that the final grade won’t look all that good either.
