Letter to Representative Shuler by the Campaign Legal Center regarding Potential Conflicts of Interest. Shuler's decision to accept a government affairs position at Duke Energy raises significant potential conflicts of interest and certainly creates the appearance of such conflicts for the time he remains in office. 

A letter to Chairman Goss and Vice-Chairman Skaggs by attorneys concerned that the Board has amended its rules without providing any opportunity for notice or comment and with no summary or explanation of these changes being made available to the public. 

A letter to Chairman Goss and Co-Chairman Skaggs repsonding to recent suggestions by several attorneys in private practice that the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) reconsider its rules of procedure. The rules changes suggested by these attorneys in a February 4, 2013 letter to OCE are inappropriate for OCE as currently structured and would impede the agency’s ability to make the ethics process more accountable and transparent.  

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.

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.

A diverse coalition of civic organizations and academics sent a letter today to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ethics and to the House leadership calling on the committee to respect established rules of procedure in handling a complaint regarding member and staff travel to Azerbaijan. 

We are writing to urge the Senate Select Committee on Ethics to undertake a review of current procedures and rules and to make changes that will improve the Committee’s process for dealing with allegations of ethics violations. The public accurately perceives this process as insular and opaque, thus damaging public confidence in the institution you, as Chair and the Ranking Member of the Committee, are charged with upholding. We hope you will consider the following proposed changes in the spirit they are intended, as constructive improvements to the ethics process, as evidenced by their efficacy in the U.S. House of Representatives and other legislative bodies: 

The Campaign Legal Center and other groups urged House Leaders to publicly and expeditiously announce their intent to continue the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) for the 114th Congress. 

The Campaign Legal Center and other groups urged the House Leaders, in bipartisan agreement, to publicly endorse changes to the House ethics process.

The Campaign Legal Center and other groups urge Senate Leaders, in bipartisan agreement, to publicly endorse constructive changes to improve a Senate Ethics process that is often described as a black hole.

The Campaign Legal Center, Democracy 21 and Public Citizen strongly urge the State Ethics Commission of the State of New Jersey to immediately launch an inquiry into whether Gov. Christie’s acceptance of certain gifts, estimated to be valued at tens of thousands of dollars, violated the gift acceptance prohibitions found in New Jersey’s ethics and conflict of interest laws governing the office of the governor.

The Campaign Legal Center and Public Citizen wrote to the Chair and Vice Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics urging them to expeditiously undertake a more aggressive effort to educate and train Senators and their staffs regarding the applicable rules for use of any Senate resources during a campaign.  We believe this action is warranted for a number of reasons.  First, an unusually high number of Senators are running for President, and therefore, the campaign season has started much earlier.  In addition, Senators and their staffs may not have had the experience of maintaining a congressional office while running for national office.