The House ethics committee reached a deal this week on the remaining partisan disputes that have prevented the panel from investigating Majority Leader Tom DeLay and others, ending six months of squabbling.
After meeting privately for an hour earlier this week, committee Chairman Doc Hastings, Washington Republican, and Rep. Alan B. Mollohan, West Virginia Democrat and ranking committee member, agreed to hire a new, nonpartisan top staffer for the committee.
“I am pleased to report that we reached an agreement in principle that the person ultimately hired as the committee’s chief counsel/staff director would be in charge of the professional staff, and that our own personal designees — the so-called ’shared staff’ — would have no managerial or supervisory role over that professional, nonpartisan staff,” Mr. Mollohan said.
The committee leaders announced the deal in a joint statement late last night.
In a letter to colleagues, Mr. Hastings expressed his desire to “move ahead without any further delay to choose a chief counsel/staff director as well as qualified individuals to fill eight other key positions at the committee that are currently vacant — all of whom would be appointed, as the rules require, by a majority vote of the committee.”
But both men also acknowledged that more negotiations are necessary. “Although we have made significant progress, our agreement is not final, as some issues require further discussion,” Mr. Mollohan said. “I look forward to working with the chairman to reach a formal agreement that will allow us to proceed with the committee’s crucially important work.”
So far this Congress, the ethics committee has met only once and has failed to do any work because of partisan discord over how the committee will conduct investigations into members of Congress.
At the start of the year, Republicans forced through changes to committee rules aimed at ending what they called “partisan witch hunts” of years past. Objecting to the rules-changes, Democrats refused to organize the committee.
Democrats accused Republicans of trying to protect Mr. DeLay, who has come under fire for ethics questions about international travel with lobbyists. Mr. DeLay has said he welcomes an investigation into his travel and has asked the ethics committee to explain more clearly the rules regarding travel by members paid for by outside groups and corporations.
Republicans, meanwhile accused Democrats of trying to protect Rep. Jim McDermott, Washington Democrat, who awaits an investigation by the House ethics panel after losing a federal lawsuit that accused him of passing along an illegally taped 1997 telephone conversation. In an October ruling on that suit, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Hogan declared that Mr. McDermott’s “willful and knowing misconduct rises to the level of malice in this case.”
In late April, Republicans agreed to reverse the changes to the rules but both sides remained in dispute over the staffing of the committee, which has five Republicans and five Democrats.
Mr. Mollohan has accused Mr. Hastings of wanting to install his personal chief of staff — Ed Cassidy — as the committee’s top staffer in order to exert more Republican influence over investigations. Mr. Hastings vehemently denies the charge, saying he wants to make the committee work more smoothly and in a manner that is more responsive to members.
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