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. The United States House of Representatives currently has twenty-two active congressional committees, of which twenty are Standing committees The United States House of Representatives is one of the two chambers of the United States Congress; the other is the Senate. Its current chairwoman is Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio, and the ranking minority member is Doc Hastings of Washington. Stephanie Tubbs Jones ( September 10, 1949 &ndash August 20, 2008) was a Democratic politician and member of the United States Ohio ( is a Midwestern state of the United States. As part of the Great Lakes region, Ohio has long been a cultural and geographical crossroads Richard Norman "Doc" Hastings (born February 7, 1941) an American politician has been a Republican member of the United Washington ( is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. 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)
- Provides advice to members before they (the members) take action, so as to avoid uncertainty over ethical culpability
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. A political party is a Political organization that seeks to attain and maintain political power within Government, usually by participating in electoral It therefore has not usually been effective or powerful.
The committee has a long history; the first matter it handled was on January 30, 1798, when Rep. Events 1648 - Eighty Years' War: The Treaty of Münster is signed ending the conflict between the Netherlands and Spain Year 1798 ( MDCCXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Matthew Lyon of Vermont was accused of "gross indecency" after he spat on Rep. Matthew Lyon ( July 14, 1749 - August 1, 1822) (father of Chittenden Lyon and great-grandfather of William Peters Hepburn Vermont ( is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. 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"). Roger Griswold ( May 21, 1762 October 25, 1812) was governor of Connecticut and a member of the US House of Representatives Connecticut ( is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. 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. Campaign finance refers to the means by which money is raised for election campaigns.
More recently, during the rise of Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff, there was pressure on the Ethics Committee to take action to admonish members involved in their activities. Thomas Dale DeLay (born April 8 1947 is a former member of the United States House of Representatives from Sugar Land, Texas. Jack Abramoff (born February 28 1959 is a former Lobbyist, and a businessman who was a central figure in a series of high-profile political scandals. However, action was slow and blame pointed to then-Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. Speaker of the House is a political term referring to a number of people In the United Kingdom and Canada, the Speaker of the House See also Illinois's 14th congressional district special election 2008 John Dennis "Denny" Hastert (born January 2, 1942) is an When the Committee did admonish Tom DeLay for a third time, Hastert fired the Chairman and two other Republican members who voted for the admonishment. Without a quorum, the Committee could not take further action against DeLay or other members involved in that scandal or others. The Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal is a United States political scandal relating to the work performed by political lobbyists Jack Abramoff,
Members, 110th Congress
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