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  GOP blocking effort to reconstitute House ethics committee
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ContributorArmyDem 
Last EditedArmyDem  Jun 02, 2005 04:35pm
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CategoryNews
MediaNewspaper - Houston Chronicle
News DateThursday, June 2, 2005 10:35:00 PM UTC0:0
DescriptionCopyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

Despite an apparent breakthrough when Republican congressional leaders reversed ethics committee rule changes opposed by Democrats, continuing conflict over staff hiring has kept the panel stalled. Without a staff of objective, nonpartisan investigators, the panel cannot review allegations of improper funding of trips taken by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and many other representatives of both parties.

At issue is whether the committee chairman, Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., can place his chief of staff in a similar role on the committee. The rules state that the staff must be nonpartisan and jointly selected by members of both parties. The ranking Democrat, Allan Mollohan of West Virginia, calls Hastings' move illegal. The impasse between the five Democrats and five Republicans on the panel prevents Hastings from hiring a new staff chief counsel and investigators.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who served seven years on the ethics committee, told the Chronicle editorial board that Hastings' actions undermine the committee's impartiality and its ability to police the conduct of House members. She says Republicans are still trying to get even for the three ethics citations issued by the committee against DeLay last year.

At the start of this Congress, the GOP leadership replaced the committee chair and several GOP members who had voted to rebuke DeLay and pushed through rules changes that would have required a majority vote to open an investigation. Since the committee is evenly divided, either party could have prevented action on a complaint. After widespread public criticism, House members voted to rescind the changes, but the dispute over staffing continues to paralyze the committee.
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