Two members of Congress have gone to jail in the past year and another may be on the way. The corruption scandals have prompted the House of Representatives to attempt to create new mechanisms for policing its own. Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass) led a bipartisan task-force to create a new Office of Congressional Ethics that would investigate ethics charges against members apart from the dysfunctional House ethics committee. The measure would mark the biggest change in congressional ethics rules in a decade, but the legislation creating the office stalled among partisan fights over who should run the office and whether outside groups ought to be able to file complaints against lawmakers.
The House was slated to vote on the bill late last month, but it was postponed after opposition from various factions. Today, though, it looks like the bill is actually going to go the House floor for a vote. We’ll be waiting to see how Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz) votes on this one, as the indicted lawmaker has thus far refused to step down, and without a functioning ethics committee, the House has no way to force him to do so.
