CREW PREPARES COMPLAINT AGAINST REP. BOB NEY

16 May 2005 // Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) announced that it has prepared an ethics complaint against Representative Bob Ney (R-OH). CREW is releasing the complaint in the hopes of finding a Member of the House of Representatives willing to certify that the allegations are made in good faith and to forward the complaint to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct for consideration.

CREW drafted the complaint, filed by then Congressman Chris Bell (D-TX), for which Tom DeLay was admonished last year.

CREW is not filing the complaint directly with the Committee because only Members of the House can do so. Any Member of the House can, however, certify that CREW’s complaint has a good faith basis and forward the complaint to the Ethics Committee, stating that the complaint merits the Committee’s consideration.

Historically Members in the House have been unwilling to file complaints against other Members. Up until last June, there had been a 7-year “truce” under which Members agreed not to file complaints against Members of the other party. When outside ethics watchdog groups argued that the ethics rules should be changed to permit outsiders to file complaints since Members were so unwilling to do so, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi insisted that “outside groups have an avenue." Pelosi claimed that outsiders could “give [a complaint] to a Member of Congress . . . if they have a complaint that meets the criteria of a complaint for the ethics committee. I don't know why they just don't hand it over to a Member of Congress to file for them." (Damon Chappie, Watchdogs: Pelosi Wrong on Ethic, Roll Call, March 8, 2004).

CREW has asked several Members to forward its complaint to the Ethics Committee, but no one would agree to do so.