Hefley and Berman circulated the annual memo describing the adjusted limits on the amount of outside income that lawmakers and staffers may earn. In addition to Hefley and Berman, Reps. Both have also expressed a desire to leave the panel as soon as the case is closed. And we may or may not let them get off. Many lawmakers consider the panel a legislative black hole that sucks up enormous amounts of time with virtually no political benefit.
Members also find the task of judging the conduct of fellow lawmakers distasteful.
Members who do sit on the committee are routinely lambasted by editorial boards and watchdog groups as weak, ineffective and interested solely in protecting one another. For all sorts of things that are improper and violations of the rules, essentially, Members from either party are going to get away with it. Gary Ruskin, director of the Congressional Accountability Project, noted that the committee was late in publishing its rules during the last Congress and that the panel was virtually moribund for much of the 105th Congress due to a moratorium that was imposed while leaders sought to rewrite ethics rules. They start with a whimper and not with a bang, and they usually end with a whimper too. John Bresnahan contributed to this report.