Today, Common Cause and other government accountability groups urged every member of the U.S. House of Representatives to strengthen the independent Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) and make the office permanent. Even if Congress does not codify the OCE into law at this time, the groups stress the importance of maintaining the office’s continued existence and the importance of not weakening it in the 119th Congress. The letter emphasizes overwhelming public support for increased ethics and accountability measures and touts the success of the OCE over its first 15 years.

“Americans expect and deserve accountability from their Representatives in Washington, and for 15 years the Office of Congressional Ethics has provided that accountability in the U.S. House of Representatives,” said Virginia Kase Solomon, présidente et directrice générale de Common Cause. “Before the Office of Congressional Ethics was created, the House Ethics Committee was seen as a place where ethics complaints were swept under the rug, and as a result, public confidence in the House withered.”

“The OCE was created in the wake a numerous ethics scandals involving Members because the House Ethics Committee for years had been unwilling and/or unable to hold Members accountable to any sort of acceptable ethical standards,” said Aaron Scherb, directeur principal des affaires législatives de Common Cause. “It would be both short-sighted and disastrous to return to the ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ approach to ethics enforcement that would take root if the OCE were gutted or eliminated.”

Congress created the OCE, with Common Cause’s strong support, under intense public pressure in the wake of a series of bribery and corruption scandals that led to numerous resignations as well as prison sentences for House Members and staff. Since its creation in 2008, the Office of Congressional Ethics has served as an independent watchdog providing nonpartisan oversight and accountability in the House.

The letter emphasizes that the OCE has referred an almost equal number of Democratic and Republican Members for further investigation. Furthermore, it highlights that the OCE helped fix a broken ethics process and repaired the damaged reputation of the U.S. House of Representatives.

In addition to Common Cause, the groups signing the letter include Campaign Legal Center, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Democracy 21, Issue One, Project on Government Oversight, Protect Democracy, and Public Citizen.

To read the letter to the full House, Cliquez ici.

To read the Common Cause March 2024 report—La petite locomotive qui pouvait—on the successes of the OCE in its first 15 years, Cliquez ici.