U.S. House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct

The Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, often known simply as the Ethics Committee, is one of the committees of the United States House of Representatives. Its current chairman is Doc Hastings of Washington, and the ranking minority member is Alan Mollohan of West Virginia. It has many functions, but they all revolve around the standards of ethical conduct for members of the House. Under this authority, it:

• Agrees on a set of rules that regulate what behavior is considered ethical for members (rules relating to gifts, travel, campaign activities, treatment of staff, conflicts of interest, etc. are typical)
• Conducts investigations into whether members have violated these standards
• Makes recommendations to the whole House on what action, if any, should be taken as a result of the investigations (e.g. censure, expulsion from the House, or nothing if the member is found not to be violating a rule)
• Provide advice to members before they (the members) take action, so as to avoid uncertainty over ethical culpability

The ethics committee is traditionally considered to be not very prestigious, since its policies have so little impact on the world outside the House. The committee has an equal number of members from each party, unlike the rest of the committees, which are stacked in favor of the party that controls the House.

The committee has a long history; the first matter it handled was on January 30, 1798, when Rep. Matthew Lyon of Vermont was accused of "gross indecency" after he spat on Rep. Roger Griswold of Connecticut after an exchange of insults (a week later, another complaint was filed against Lyon, this time for "gross indecency of language in his defense before this House"). Since the early days of the House, the Committee's reports have gotten much more technical, delving into the details of campaign finance and other financial arcana.

External link

• Official site