Congress Needs Independent Watch Dog

Then ask your friends and family to help by forwarding them this email.

Background

Former
Congressmen Duke Cunningham (CA) and Robert Ney (OH) were caught
trading votes for campaign contributions and other bribes. Disgraced
lobbyist Jack Abramoff landed in jail for masterminding efforts using
campaign contributions to steer public funds to his pet projects. Rep
William Jefferson (LA) is under investigation after the FBI found
$90,000 in cash in his freezer and former Rep.Tom DeLay is still
defending himself against corruption charges.  Several top
legislative and White House aides have already pled guilty to
corruption charges and this may only be the tip of the iceberg.

Scrutiny
by the press and others has shown grossly inadequate rules and lax
enforcement of the rules in Congress covering ethics and lobbying
practices.

After
two years of foot-dragging, excuses and even refusals to acknowledge
the problems, the new Congress in its opening session took its first
critical steps in changing the way business is done in Washington. The
overwhelming support (the measures passed 430 to 1) for new
restrictions on lobbyist-funded trips and gifts sends a powerful
message that the new Congress is taking the need for reform
seriously.  This is a sea-change from the ill-conceived and
ineffectual bill considered and passed by the House during the scandal
plagued session last year.    

There is more to be done and topping the list is the establishment of an independent enforcement entity

Key is enforcement

Jack
Abramoff's fall from power cannot be credited to an aggressive House or
Senate ethics enforcement process.  He was turned in to the
Justice Department by a competitor turned whistle-blower. After the
initial details of the case came out, the House and Senate Ethics
Committees sat on their hands.  They initiated no probe nor asked
any questions nor made any attempt to see if members had violated the
rules and the public trust.  The House Ethics Committee was so
paralyzed they failed to even convene a meeting for most of the 109th
Congress.

The
current system is broken.  Overseeing one's own colleagues is
difficult under any circumstances, but oversight in a partisan-charged
environment like the U.S. Congress is, as we have now
seen,impossible.  This is not to say that members of Congress are
any less capable than others to self-police, no one self-polices
well.  In the Executive Branch there is an Office of Government
Ethics. Businesses have outside auditors. Congress needs independent
and professional oversight and enforcement of the rules.

Beyond
the highly touted “first 100 hours,” the 110th Congress must move to
create outside, professional oversight to ensure the new rules will not
be paper tigers and assure the American people that the new Congress
will different from the last.

The
U.S. House has created an Ethics Task Force to look into the
possibility of establishing an independent enforcement office with the
power to launch nonpartisan investigations. Their report is due May 1st.

Contact
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Task Force Chairman Michael Capuano now and
tell to them that congress needs an independent watch dog. Then ask
your friends and family to do the same by forwarding them this email.

To take action, click on this link

Sincerely,

Meshawn Ayala
Iowa PIRG Citizen Outreach Director
MeshawnA@iowapirg.org
http://www.IowaPIRG.org