The petition
We respectfully write to you out of concern that many young people are losing confidence in the integrity of Congress. While we recognize that the vast majority of Members obey the rules, the recent actions of a few from both parties have done great damage to the reputation of the Institution.
At the heart of restoring that reputation is restoring the confidence of the public in Congressâ?? ability to impartiallyinvestigate its own Members. Just as independent audits help protect a companyâ??s reputation, we believe an independent ethics investigation process could do so for Congress.
In light of these crises in confidence, we ask you, to reconsider your previously held positions and support Congressional ethics reform that establishes a more independent ethics investigation process for Members of Congress.
Such a process should in our view, meet at least three basic criteria.
1. Members of the public, not just Members of Congress should be able to file complaints.
2. One partyâ??s votes should not be able to block an investigation.
3. Investigations should be supervised not by Members of Congress, but by an outside professional selected on a bipartisan basis by you as Congressional leaders.
The reforms we seek are similar to proposalsoffered by Senators Collins, Lieberman, Obama, and McCain in early 2006, and by Congressmen Shays and Meehan in the House. The Collins-Lieberman proposal was defeated by bipartisan majority including the leadership of both parties in the U.S. Senate.
To our knowledge, neither the Democrat leadership in the House or the Senate, despite their reform rhetoric, have committed to support these reforms should they win a majority.
It would be very helpful for voters to know, given the ethics issues that have arisen since early 2006, whether any leaders of either party would support independent ethics reform in the 110th Congress.
Although we support the re-election of Republican majorities in Congress, we believe that Leaders of whichever party controls Congress must commit themselves to reform that restores the confidence of the American people and the integrity of the United States Congress.
We look forward to hearing from you and thank you for your consideration.
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