Judicial Watch Joins Coalition Asking Paul Ryan to Appoint Ethics Office Chairman Leadership Position Unfilled for Over One Year

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced that it joined a coalition of ethics groups from across the political spectrum in a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) asking him to appoint a new co-chair of the Office of Congressional Ethics to replace former co-chair Porter Goss (R-FL), who stepped down in April, 2015.

The letter states:

By naming a replacement, you will send a needed signal that you support the Office and that you are committed, as the institutional leader of the House of Representatives, to continuing the Office in the next Congress…No more time should pass without a new Co-Chair.

The letter is signed by Judicial Watch, the Campaign Legal Center, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Common Cause, Demand Progress, Democracy 21, Issue One, National Legal and Policy Center, National Taxpayers Union, Norm Ornstein, Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) and Public Citizen.

Judicial Watch worked closely with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to develop the more independent and transparent House Office of Congressional Ethics.  As the letter notes, “During its eight years, the Office of Congressional Ethics has compiled an admirable record of conducting impartial, professional investigations.”

“Speaker Ryan needs to fill the ethics leadership gap in the House and appoint a new chairman to the Office of Congressional Ethics,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.  “Congressional Republicans have rightly criticized Barack Obama for leaving agency inspector general slots unfilled.  Then why would Republican leadership tolerate a similar vacancy in the leadership of the House’s anti-corruption watchdog?”

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