USA TODAY: GOP, Dems Take Contrasting Approaches to Ethics Reform
USA TODAY: GOP, Dems Take Contrasting Approaches to Ethics Reform
The following letter to the editor by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi appeared in USA TODAY this morning:
USA TODAY's view on government corruption rightly chastises Republicans for their failure to pass the reforms necessary to break the links between Congress and special interests. But by failing to draw a distinction between the policy positions of the two parties, the editorial unfairly implicates Democrats in the Republican ruse to block real reform. In fact, there are real differences between the two parties' plans ("Scandal? What scandal? Congress ducks ethics reform," Our view, Government corruption debate, Wednesday).
This past spring, Democrats voted in favor of a true reform bill, the Honest Leadership & Open Government Act, which would ban gifts and travel from lobbyists and the organizations that retain them; prohibit official travel on corporate jets; extend the ban on former members' lobbying to two years; require greater disclosure of lobbyist contacts; mandate fair and open debate in the Congress; and impose tough new standards to end waste, fraud and abuse.
House Republicans, in contrast, put forward only a sham of a proposal, which USA TODAY has rightly called an "anemic excuse" for reform. The Republican bill would not even put an end to the lobbyist financed gifts and travel that are at the heart of the Republican culture of corruption that has plagued Washington.
Democrats stand with the American people and public watchdog groups, such as Common Cause, in support of strong anti-corruption laws. Republicans side with former majority leader Tom DeLay, disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the special interests such as Big Oil and the prescription-drug companies that line their pockets and fund their congressional campaigns.
Unfortunately, Republicans have turned this Congress into the most corrupt and closed in history. Democrats want to take Congress in a new direction, to make it the most open and honest in history.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington
http://democraticleader.house.gov/press/articles.cfm?pressReleaseID=1793