About The Foundation
The Sunlight Foundation was founded in 2006 with the goal of using technology to enable citizens to learn more about what their elected representatives are doing, to help reduce corruption, ensure greater transparency and... [more]
Join Our Mailing List:
Sunlight's RSS feeds:
Sunlight's Project feeds:
Help Spread Sunlight:
We're Social:
Sunlight's Reform Agenda
Sunlight has updated and refined our legislative priorities in order to generate greater change and a more transparent Congress.
[Full Memo | Top Priorities]
Search our Archives
User login
House Ethics Committee
New Investigations and Suitcases of Money
Now boarding, El Al nonstop flight to Israel. Please make sure your suitcases of money are properly secured in the Prime Minister's house. William Jefferson eat your heart out. An investigation into corruption in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office led to a search of Olmert's house where suitcases of money were found. The suitcases, containing hundreds of thousands in American dollars (I know what you're thinking, American dollars, aren't they worthless now), came from New York businessman Morris Talansky, referred to in coded transmissions as "the Laundry Man." Olmert denies any wrong doing, claiming that the money was for campaign purposes. Judah Grunstein at World Politics Review makes about the only observation one can:
I don't know a whole lot about Israeli campaign finance laws, but I imagine that suitcases full of cash that go undeclared until a police raid on your home probably violate them.
Back here in the states, the Department of Justice opened a new investigation into the possible misuse of congressional staff by two offices. Reps. Jane Harman and Neil Abercrombie were accused of using congressional staff to do campaign work by a former staffer who recently plead guilty to fraud charges. It is a violation of House rules for congressional staff to do campaign work unless it is on their own time. This may also violate federal law statutes regarding the solicitation of political contributions from employees.
Both Harman and Abercrombie denied using staff for campaign work. It should also be noted that these violations rarely go anywhere. If anything, members get a slap on the wrist, which in congressional terms is a politely worded letter that stops short of admonishment. The House Ethics Committee should investigate this alleged misuse of campaign staff. They did recently when Rep. John Conyers was alleged to have forced a staffer to do campaign work and they should do so again. I'm not holding my breath though. (Sigh.)
Written by Paul Blumenthal on May 9, 2008 - 11:14am.
Read more: Congressional Staff | House Ethics Committee | House Rules | International Corruption | Jane Harman | Neil Abercrombie (see all terms)
Rep. Abercrombie questions ethics of ethics bill handling
Written by Paul Blumenthal on May 2, 2008 - 11:01am.
Read more: Ethics Task Force | House Ethics Committee | Neil Abercrombie (see all terms)
Read more: Ethics Task Force | House Ethics Committee | Neil Abercrombie (see all terms)
Source Name
The Hill
Snippit
Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) is challenging actions by his Democratic leaders and plans to ask the ethics committee to determine whether House rules were broken during a recent ethics vote.
Ethics Complaints Sheathed
Written by Paul Blumenthal on April 30, 2008 - 10:34am.
Read more: House Ethics Committee (see all terms)
Read more: House Ethics Committee (see all terms)
Source Name
Roll Call
Snippit
Even though both Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) recently called for the ethics committee to investigate members of the other’s party — fighting words by any standard — neither took the next step of triggering an investigation, effectively pulling their punches.
House Creates a Panel to Watch Over Lawmakers’ Behavior
Written by Paul Blumenthal on March 12, 2008 - 9:07am.
Read more: House Ethics Committee | Independent Oversight | Nancy Pelosi (see all terms)
Read more: House Ethics Committee | Independent Oversight | Nancy Pelosi (see all terms)
Source Name
New York Times
Snippit
In the wake of a string of Congressional misconduct and corruption cases, the House on Tuesday created an independent panel to investigate suspected wrongdoing by lawmakers, despite deep reservations from rank-and-file lawmakers from both parties.
Dem division forces second delay on ethics
Written by Paul Blumenthal on March 6, 2008 - 10:37am.
Read more: Democrats | Ethics Task Force | House Ethics Committee (see all terms)
Read more: Democrats | Ethics Task Force | House Ethics Committee (see all terms)
Source Name
The Hill
Snippit
House Democratic leaders failed to convince enough of their colleagues to support a leadership plan to impose a new layer of ethics scrutiny on lawmakers, forcing leaders late Wednesday to cancel a vote on the measure for the second time in as many weeks.
Tough cop role taken by Senate on ethics issue
Written by Paul Blumenthal on March 5, 2008 - 10:41am.
Read more: House Ethics Committee | Senate Ethics Committee (see all terms)
Read more: House Ethics Committee | Senate Ethics Committee (see all terms)
Source Name
The Hill
Snippit
The Senate Ethics Committee has emerged as the tougher policeman of congressional behavior than its House counterpart, the Standards of Official Conduct Committee, which has become embroiled in a fracas over ethics enforcement in the lower chamber.
Pelosi plots ethics course
Written by Paul Blumenthal on March 4, 2008 - 11:11am.
Read more: Ethics Task Force | House Ethics Committee | Independent Oversight | Nancy Pelosi (see all terms)
Read more: Ethics Task Force | House Ethics Committee | Independent Oversight | Nancy Pelosi (see all terms)
Source Name
The Hill
Snippit
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) worked to salvage plans for an independent ethics office Monday, seeking to win over a Democratic Caucus that has shown itself to be cool to the idea of more scrutiny of members’ activities.
House Ethics Panel to Review Renzi Case
Written by Paul Blumenthal on February 28, 2008 - 5:11pm.
Read more: House Ethics Committee | Rick Renzi (see all terms)
Read more: House Ethics Committee | Rick Renzi (see all terms)
Source Name
Roll Call
Snippit
The House ethics committee voted Thursday to empanel an investigative subcommittee to review whether Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) violated the chamber’s code of conduct or other rules in connection to his recent indictment on 35 counts of extortion, money laundering and conspiracy.
Rules revolt, ethics fiasco
Written by Paul Blumenthal on February 28, 2008 - 11:12am.
Read more: Ethics Rules | House Ethics Committee | Independent Oversight (see all terms)
Read more: Ethics Rules | House Ethics Committee | Independent Oversight (see all terms)
Source Name
The Hill
Snippit
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) efforts to bring about a new day on House ethics appeared to collapse Wednesday, with Democrats on a key committee openly rebelling against an ethics measure backed by leadership.
Vote on outside ethics office expected Thursday
Written by Paul Blumenthal on February 26, 2008 - 10:57am.
Read more: House Ethics Committee | Independent Oversight | Michael Capuano (see all terms)
Read more: House Ethics Committee | Independent Oversight | Michael Capuano (see all terms)
Source Name
The Hill
Snippit
The House will likely vote on a bill imposing a new layer of ethical scrutiny on member activity this Thursday, according to the lawmaker leading the effort.
Current Projects
Fortune 535 Running the numbers on congressional wealth
PublicMarkup.org An experiment to open bills to online, public review.
Where Are They Now? Former Congressional Staffers head through the Revolving Door on to K Street.
Punch Clock Map: Putting congressional transparency on the map
Earmark Watch: Bringing Citizen Oversight to Congressional Spending
Wiki the Vote: Giving constituents the ability to report on candidates running for the House and Senate
A word from our Sponsor
Ongoing Projects
Realtime Investigations: Follow along as Bill and Anu detail their investigative reporting adventures.
LOUIS is the beginning of a comprehensive, completely indexed and cross-referenced depository of federal documents.
The OpenHouse Project: Working to identify areas where Congress can open up and improve access to relevant and timely information.
OpenCongress: Bringing together official government information with news and blog coverage to give you the real story behind what's happening in Congress.
Past Projects
Visualizing Earmarks: Select Visualizations of 2005 OMB Earmark Data.
Mashup Congress and Win:
And the Winner is... Unfluence! We received more than a dozen entries to Sunlight's first Web 2.0 Mashup Contest.
Congressional Web Site Investigation:Employing citizen oversight to find out if we are getting our money’s worth from congressional Web sites.
Today's Ethics Watch
No money coming to Young’s legal defense: Alaska congressman Don Young (R) is having trouble getting contributions to his legal defense fund. A document filed with the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct shows “no activity” since the fund was approved by the committee on Jan. 9. (The Hill)
Seats of Power: A Return to Skybox Lobbying?: Not long ago, lobbyists regularly entertained lawmakers and their aides in skyboxes at local sports arenas. But after a series of scandals on Capitol Hill, the law was changed to forbid congressional officials from accepting anything of value from lobbyists without repayment -- let alone the best seats in the house. (Washington Post)
Companies Start to Lift Veil on Political Spending: Ever wonder how much companies really spend to influence government through trade associations? Well, a few corporations are coming clean, or at least cleaner. (Washington Post)
Dems, GOP together nix Murtha earmark: Democrats and Republicans joined together to strip a pet project of Rep. John Murtha’s (D-Pa.) from the 2009 intelligence authorization bill — the same project Democrats defended last year. (The Hill)
NAPA launches collaboration Web site: If you’ve ever wished your federal agency could adopt wikis, use YouTube or delve into the virtual world but feared the security, technology and political barriers were too high to overcome, take heart. You’ve got supporters, and they have success stories. (NextGov)
Jefferson lawyers cite race case in change of venue request: Rep. William Jefferson’s (D-La.) lawyers have asked a federal judge to reconsider a ruling denying a change of venue for his corruption trial. (The Hill)
Jefferson Tries New Argument: Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) has asked a federal court to use an international criminal law treaty to force the depositions of three people in Nigeria who have been implicated in corruption charges levied against him. (Roll Call)
Foreign Gifts Test Rules: Even as new ethics restrictions have made it difficult for Members and staff to accept gifts — aside from token baseball caps or T-shirts — one area remains where lawmakers and their staffs can collect trinkets more or less guilt-free: foreign travel. (Roll Call)
K St.’s ‘Max Out’ Crowd: The 20 top K Street donors this election cycle have handed federal candidates nearly $1.8 million in personal cash. The majority of that money, $1.3 million, has gone to help Democrats as the party in charge of Capitol Hill looks to expand its majority. (Roll Call)
Senator’s Ties to Real Estate Draw Criticism: He has made millions as a title insurance executive, landlord and real estate developer in this college town, where the economy, despite trouble nationwide, is still growing nicely. Now, as a United States senator, with the mortgage mess fueling a national economic slowdown, Richard C. Shelby has more say over the revamping of housing finance laws than almost anyone else in Congress. (New York Times)
Oil Lobby Reaches Out to Citizens Peeved at the Pump: Faced with a national outcry over the high price of gasoline and soaring profits for energy companies, the oil and gas industry is waging an unusually pricey campaign to burnish its image. (Washington Post)
[ More in the Archive ]
Seats of Power: A Return to Skybox Lobbying?: Not long ago, lobbyists regularly entertained lawmakers and their aides in skyboxes at local sports arenas. But after a series of scandals on Capitol Hill, the law was changed to forbid congressional officials from accepting anything of value from lobbyists without repayment -- let alone the best seats in the house. (Washington Post)
Companies Start to Lift Veil on Political Spending: Ever wonder how much companies really spend to influence government through trade associations? Well, a few corporations are coming clean, or at least cleaner. (Washington Post)
Dems, GOP together nix Murtha earmark: Democrats and Republicans joined together to strip a pet project of Rep. John Murtha’s (D-Pa.) from the 2009 intelligence authorization bill — the same project Democrats defended last year. (The Hill)
NAPA launches collaboration Web site: If you’ve ever wished your federal agency could adopt wikis, use YouTube or delve into the virtual world but feared the security, technology and political barriers were too high to overcome, take heart. You’ve got supporters, and they have success stories. (NextGov)
Jefferson lawyers cite race case in change of venue request: Rep. William Jefferson’s (D-La.) lawyers have asked a federal judge to reconsider a ruling denying a change of venue for his corruption trial. (The Hill)
Jefferson Tries New Argument: Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) has asked a federal court to use an international criminal law treaty to force the depositions of three people in Nigeria who have been implicated in corruption charges levied against him. (Roll Call)
Foreign Gifts Test Rules: Even as new ethics restrictions have made it difficult for Members and staff to accept gifts — aside from token baseball caps or T-shirts — one area remains where lawmakers and their staffs can collect trinkets more or less guilt-free: foreign travel. (Roll Call)
K St.’s ‘Max Out’ Crowd: The 20 top K Street donors this election cycle have handed federal candidates nearly $1.8 million in personal cash. The majority of that money, $1.3 million, has gone to help Democrats as the party in charge of Capitol Hill looks to expand its majority. (Roll Call)
Senator’s Ties to Real Estate Draw Criticism: He has made millions as a title insurance executive, landlord and real estate developer in this college town, where the economy, despite trouble nationwide, is still growing nicely. Now, as a United States senator, with the mortgage mess fueling a national economic slowdown, Richard C. Shelby has more say over the revamping of housing finance laws than almost anyone else in Congress. (New York Times)
Oil Lobby Reaches Out to Citizens Peeved at the Pump: Faced with a national outcry over the high price of gasoline and soaring profits for energy companies, the oil and gas industry is waging an unusually pricey campaign to burnish its image. (Washington Post)
[ More in the Archive ]