U.S. House:Letter from CLC et al. Responding to Attack on Office of Congressional Ethics

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On May 29, several groups and individuals from a wide array of the ideological spectrum wrote a letter to House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi urging them to discount attacks of the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) by a former staff director of the House Ethics Committee.  Those signing the letter were the Campaign Legal Center, Center for Responsive Politics, Common Cause, Democracy 21, Judicial Watch, Thomas Mann, National Legal and Policy Center, Norm Ornstein, Project on Government Oversight (POGO), Public Citizen and Jim Thurber.

Former House Ethics Committee staff Director Dan Schwager, in an op-ed in Politico, accused the OCE of leaking its own report on Members' travel to Azerbaijan.  However, Mr. Schwager presents no proof for this allegation other than claiming that OCE has a "bunker mentality."  The letter stresses the important contributions of OCE in improving the credibility of the House ethics process.