Kerry Legislation Creates an Inspector General to Reign in “Culture of Corruption”

Today, John Kerry demanded an independent oversight of Congress. Kerry, taking direct aim at ending the culture of corruption in Washington, introduced new legislation to "establish an independent Congressional Inspector General to investigate violations of the law and ethics rules by Members of Congress and Congressional staff."

“We have to restore the faith of the American people in Congress,” Kerry said. “Every day we hear more stories about lobbyists and special interests being caught using money, yachts and fancy golf trips to Scotland to literally buy-off lawmakers. We owe it to the people who sent us to Washington to root out corruption and show America we can clean up this institution. This is one small step.”

Under current law only the House and Senate ethics committees investigate ethics charges brought against a member of Congress or their staff. However, recent events show that the ethics committees have not effectively investigated or appropriately punished members of Congress for ethical violations. There is no indication that either ethics committee has conducted any investigations into Jack Abramoff’s or his associates’ contacts with Members of Congress or their staffs. Duke Cunningham was convicted and resigned without being sanctioned by the House Ethics Committee. And in an attempt to protect Tom DeLay, House Speaker Dennis Hastert replaced the chairman of the House ethics committee with a Congressman who would tow the party line.

“The culture of corruption is out of control when Washington Republicans haven’t lifted a finger to investigate Members of Congress’ ties with Jack Abramoff and when Duke Cunningham was convicted without so much as a sanction from the House,” Kerry said. “It’s a sad day when you have members of Congress who are literally criminals go undisciplined by their colleagues. No wonder people look at Washington and know this city is broken.”

Kerry’s legislation creates an independent Congressional Inspector General, similar to those at federal agencies. The Inspector General would conduct investigations into ethics abuses and provide a public report to the Justice Department or ethics committees describing any credible evidence of improper conduct or illegal activities. Any person—including the public—would be able to request an investigation by providing a sworn statement made under penalty of perjury. The Inspector General would also provide periodic reports to Congress on needed updates to ethics laws and recommendations on how to improve enforcement.

The Inspector General would release an annual report of violations by Members of Congress and Congressional staff.

Last month, Kerry introduced the “Duke Cunningham Act,” which denies taxpayer-funded pension benefits to Members of Congress who are convicted of crimes such as bribery, conspiracy, or other serious ethics offenses.