Committee InfoDescriptionThe primary responsibility of the House Ethics Committee, formally known as the United States House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, is to negotiate and investigate all ethical concerns within the U.S. government.The Ethics Committee naturally aspires to achieve a separation from partisan politics. Unfortunately, the events surrounding the investigation of former Republican Representative Tom DeLay suggest no such separation. While DeLay was directly implicated in Lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s scheme of defrauding Native American tribes of millions of dollars, the committee’s actions were slow and ineffectual. Moreover, after the committee admonished Representative DeLay for a third time, then Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert fired the chairperson and two other Republican representatives who voted against DeLay. Without a quorum, the committee took no further action against DeLay. Despite this shortcoming, the House Committee on Standard of Official Conduct has been generally successful in conducting most of its duties. Its jurisdiction includes any and all areas concerning governmental ethics in the House of Representatives. The committee is responsible for setting ethical standards for members and investigating whether House members have violated ethical standards. Naturally, the committee is responsible for regulating lobbyist contributions, gifts, campaign activities, treatment of staff, and conflicts of interest. If the committee does find that a member has violated a rule, castigation ranges from censure to expulsion. Considering the broad definition of ‘ethics’, especially in US government, the House Committee on Standard of Official Conduct has a flexible jurisdiction regarding the activities of the US House. The Committee most recently investigated Republican Representative Sam Graves under allegations of a conflict of interest regarding his connection to an alternative energy connection and recent involved legislation. Subsequently, however, a thorough investigation cleared Representative Graves. An investigation of Democrat Representative Maxine Waters regarding her connection to a bank that received bailout money is pending. The House Ethics Committee is required to be made of equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats, with the chairperson coming from the party of the majority. Currently the chairperson is Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgre of California. The Republican ranking member (senior minority leader in the committee) is Jo Bonner of Alabama. If you’re still interested, feel free to check out the Committee’s website: http://ethics.house.gov/ -------------------- My name is Lys Runnerstrom, and I am a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences at Penn. I am a Philosophy major and a Political Science minor. I am on the Philosophy Undergraduate Advisory Board as well as the Executive Board of Pre-Law Women at Penn. When I’m not at school, I work at Philadelphia Legal Assistance in the Pennsylvania Farmworkers Project unit. I am from Golden, Colorado, which is just outside of Denver and only a short drive away from the mountains, and I went to Lakewood High School. Please feel free to contact me with questions you have about Model Congress or anything else. I am very excited to meet all of you in February! Hi everyone. My name is Mike Oshinsky and I’m a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences with an undecided major. In addition to Model Congress I’m on the Parliamentary Debate team. This is my second PennMC, and my first time as a chair, but I’m sure that I’ll recognize many of you from last year’s conference. If you have any questions about the Ethics Committee, PennMC, or Penn in general feel free to email me at mosh@sas.upenn.edu. Chairs
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Account LoginConference DatesMarch 31 - April 3, 2011 RegistrationRegistration is now closed. InformationClick here for more details about PENNMC 2011! Check us out on Facebook!
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