New Direction Congress Passes Landmark Ethics Bill
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn today released the following statement regarding passage of H.Res. 895, a congressional resolution establishing an independent Office of Congressional Ethics.
“Today, the House passed a landmark bill that moves our country in a New Direction and significantly strengthens the ethics enforcement process, building trust with the American people in the House of Representatives.
“H.Res 895 creates an independent Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), whose primary mandate will be to carry out probes and refer allegations of unlawful activity made against Members of Congress to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. This new independent organization will be led by a bipartisan, six-person panel whose membership will be jointly agreed to by both the Speaker of the House and the House Minority Leader.
“With today’s creation of a new Office of Congressional Ethics and previously approved lobby reform legislation, this New Direction Congress has demonstrated we are committed to making the 110th Congress and future Congresses more ethically transparent and morally accountable.”
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