(Still stonewalling) House Republicans pushing ethics plan

House Republicans Unveil New Ethics Plan

By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer
13 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - House Republicans moved to seize the initiative for ethics reform Tuesday with a comprehensive package of changes, including the banning of privately sponsored travel like that arranged by convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The scandal already has produced casualties. Rep. Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record), an Ohio Republican implicated in the Abramoff investigation, said Sunday he will step aside temporarily as chairman of the House Administration Committee. That panel controls internal House operations.

Former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who had ties to Abramoff and faces a Texas felony trial on campaign finance charges, earlier announced he would not try to regain his post.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060117/ap_on_go_co/congress_ethics

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay gets a lift from President Bush in Texas. (By Gerald Herbert -- Associated Press)

GOP to Reverse Ethics Rule Blocking New DeLay Probe

January Change Led Democrats to Shut Down Panel

By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 27, 2005; Page A01

House Republican leaders, acknowledging that ethics disputes are taking a heavy toll on the party's image, decided yesterday to rescind a controversial rule change that led to the three-month shutdown of the ethics committee, according to officials who participated in the talks.

Republicans touched off a political uproar in January by changing a rule that had required the ethics committee to continue considering a complaint against a House member if there was a deadlock between the committee's five Republicans and five Democrats. The January change reversed this, calling for automatic dismissal of an ethics complaint when a deadlock occurs.

Democrats rebelled against that and other changes -- saying Republicans were trying to protect House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) from further ethics investigations -- and blocked the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, as the ethics panel is officially known, from organizing for the new Congress.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/26/AR2005042601295.html