CREW CRITICIZES HOUSE VOTE ASKING FOR DEPT. OF JUSTICE INVESTIGATION OF COCONUT ROAD EARMARK

30 Apr 2008 // Washington, DC - Today, the House joined the Senate is asking the Department of Justice to investigate the Coconut Road earmark. Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), released the following statement:

“First CREW would like to commend Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) attention to the Coconut Road earmark and his relentless pursuit to get to the bottom of the matter. Clearly, something went seriously awry before the 2005 highway funding bill was sent to the president. It certainly appears as if Rep. Don Young (R-AK) snuck in the earmark in exchange for campaign contributions from Florida developer Daniel Aronoff. Although Rep. Young is now critical of the Senate for ‘meddling in House Affairs,’ the House has long-known about the problems with the Coconut Road earmark. It was Sen. Coburn who would not let the issue die.

In fact, the House Ethics Committee has had a complaint for over a year and took no action whatsoever. Neither the House nor the Senate has a strong track record of policing and punishing the illegal or unethical conduct of their members. This situation perfectly illustrates why Congress needs an independent ethics office -- with subpoena power -- to investigate members.

There are many questions remaining. But, in referring the matter over to the Department of Justice, both the Senate and the House have ignored the Speech or Debate clause, which prevents law enforcement from introducing legislative material (such as an earmark in a bill) as evidence against a lawmaker. Moreover, the House takes an expansive view of the breadth of the Speech or Debate clause. Recently, for example, the House counsel’s office sought to quash a Justice Department subpoena issued to a former Appropriations committee staff member in connection with the criminal investigation into Rep. Jerry Lewis’s (R-CA) earmarks. The House likely will assert the same arguments here.

The American public needs to have confidence that members of Congress are held accountable for their illegal and unethical conduct. Today’s vote is again nothing more than Kabuki theater given the likely constitutional impediment to a Justice Department investigation.”

CREW's letter to House Counsel and response are posted on the right.

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Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a non-profit legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public officials accountable for their actions.

For more information, please visit www.citizensforethics.org or contact Naomi Seligman Steiner at 202.408.5565/nseligman@citizensforethics.org.

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