Time , 01 February 2007

JIM ABRAMS

House leaders on Wednesday announced a task force to examine whether an outside panel should investigate ethics problems involving House members.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement that she and the House Republican leader, Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, had agreed that the task force would report by May 1.

Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass., will lead the eight-member task force, which has four lawmakers from each party.

Both the House and Senate over the past year have struggled over whether Congress should keep policing itself through the ethics committees in the two chambers or whether an outside office should oversee ethics investigations.

The vote was 71-27 against creating the office, with Senators arguing that the ethics committee has a good record of pursuing charges against members.

House Democrats cited the ethical legal lapses of the Republican majority in their successful election campaign last November. Now in the majority, Democrats made tighter ethics and lobbying rules their first order of business when the new session began in early January.

The question of an outside office, however, was put aside. The task force will see how similar offices have worked in state legislatures and private entities.

Other Democrats on the panel are Reps. Marty Meehan of Massachusetts, Bobby Scott of Virginia and Betty McCollum of Minnesota. The Republicans are Reps. Lamar Smith of Texas, Dave Camp of Michigan, Dave Hobson of Ohio and Todd Tiahrt of Kansas.