Providing for Expenses of Certain Committees of House of Representatives in 111th Congress
Floor Speech
PROVIDING FOR EXPENSES OF CERTAIN COMMITTEES OF HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN 111TH CONGRESS -- (House of Representatives - March 31, 2009)
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Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Thank you, Chairman Brady, for yielding. As vice chair of the Committee on House Administration, as well as chair of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, I find myself in kind of a unique position of dealing with this funding resolution both as a member of House Administration, where we heard the testimony of every chair and ranking member, read the budgets of every single committee, but also as chair of the Committee on Standards, I, along with the ranking member, Congressman Bonner, gave testimony and made a budget request.
So I am pleased to note that the committee funding resolution today is not just about how much money a committee receives, it's about resources necessary to meet and fulfill duties and obligations.
Now when it comes to the so-called Ethics Committee, obviously, we know--and this is bipartisan--we have a very strong responsibility to ensure that the House adheres to and upholds the highest standards of ethics.
To that end, the Ethics Committee annually produces thousands of written advisory opinions and informal opinions; it educates Members and staff and other employees of the House; it reviews annual financial disclosure filings; and, when necessary, conducts investigations into possible violations of the House rules.
In the last Congress, the House greatly expanded the duties and responsibilities of the Ethics Committee. It has required that the committee conduct mandatory annual ethics training for every officer and employee of the House. That means we must train roughly 10,000 employees each year.
The House also requires that the committee review all staff and Member travel requests that are privately funded, which I can tell you is a voluminous task. In addition, the House voted to establish the Office of Congressional Ethics, which we expect will increase our workload.
As you can see, the committee's mandate has grown significantly. The resolution before us does provide some additional funding for additional staff and for the adoption of new technologies to allow us to fulfill our expanded mandates.
I very much support the resolution, not only for the Ethics Committee, but for the other committees. This is a tight budget. It's not everything that everyone wanted, but these are tough times as well.
I think the chairman and the ranking member have done a marvelous job. I, for one, would like to thank them for listening to the plea of the Ethics Committee and our increased responsibilities.
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