House Committee on Ethics

Standing committee
Active United States House of Representatives 119th Congress
History
Formed	1967
Leadership
Chair	Michael Guest (R) Since January 3, 2023 (2023-01-03)
Ranking member	Mark DeSaulnier (D) Since January 3, 2025 (2025-01-03)
Structure
Seats	10
Political parties	Majority (5)  Republican (5) Minority (5)  Democratic (5)
Jurisdiction
Purpose	"to administer travel, gift, financial disclosure, outside income, and other regulations; advise members and staff; issue advisory opinions and investigate potential ethics violations"
Policy areas	Ethics
Senate counterpart	United States Senate Select Committee on Ethics
Website
ethics.house.gov (bipartisan)
Rules
Rule X.1(o), Rules of the House of Representatives Ethics Committee Rules

This article is part ofa series on the
United States House of Representatives
History of the House
Members
Current members (by seniority non-voting) Former members Hill committees (DCCC NRCC) Women in the House Speaker of the House (list of speakers list of elections) Party leaders Democratic Caucus Republican Conference
Congressional districts
Apportionment (Huntington–Hill method) Redistricting Gerrymandering General ticket Plural district
Politics and procedure
Committee of the Whole Closed session (list) Saxbe fix Committees (list) Procedures Origination Clause Quorum call Unanimous consent Salaries Articles of impeachment Self-executing rule Rules suspension
Places
United States Capitol House office buildings (Cannon Ford Longworth O'Neill Rayburn)
United States portal
v t e

TheU.S. House Committee on Ethics, often known simply as theEthics Committee, is one of thecommittees of theUnited States House of Representatives. Before the112th Congress, it was known as theCommittee on Standards of Official Conduct.^[1]

The House Ethics Committee has often received criticism.^[2][3][4][5] In response to criticism, the House created theOffice of Congressional Ethics (OCE), an independent non-partisan entity established to monitor ethical conduct in the House.

The committee has an equal number of members from eachparty, unlike the rest of the committees, which are constituted with the majority of members and the committee chair coming from the party that controls the House. This even split has limited its power by giving either political party an effectiveveto over the actions of the committee. Members may not serve more than three terms on the committee, unless they serve as chair in their fourth term.

Resolutions electing members:H.Res. 117 (Chair),H.Res. 125 (Ranking Member),H.Res. 213 (R),H.Res. 214 (D)

Resolutions electing members:H.Res. 79 (D),H.Res. 80 (R),H.Res. 84 (chair)

Resolutions electing members:H.Res. 9 (chair),H.Res. 10 (Ranking Member),H.Res. 62 (D),H.Res. 63 (R),H.Res. 95 (R)

Sources:H.Res. 31 (chair),H.Res. 32 (Ranking Member),H.Res. 113 (R),H.Res. 125 (D),H.Res. 148 (D)

Sources:H.Res. 6 (R),H.Res. 56,H.Res. 127 (D),H.Res. 685 (R)

Sources:H.Res. 6 (R),H.Res. 30,H.Res. 71 (D)

Sources:H.Res. 6 (R),H.Res. 7,H.Res. 42 (D)

Source:

• Resolutions (H.Res. 6 andH.Res. 62) electing members to certain standing committees of the House of Representatives.

The Ethics Committee has many functions, but they all revolve around the standards of ethical conduct for members of the House. Under this authority, it:

• Agrees on a set of rules that regulate what behavior is considered ethical for members (rules relating to gifts, travel, campaign activities, treatment of staff, conflicts of interest, etc. are typical)
• Conducts investigations into whether members have violated these standards
• Makes recommendations to the whole House on what action, if any, should be taken as a result of the investigations (e.g. censure,expulsion from the House, or nothing if the member is found not to be violating a rule)
• Provides advice to members before they (the members) take action, so as to avoid uncertainty over ethical culpability.

The House Committee on Ethics was established in 1967. Before its creation, the House relied on inconsistent methods for disciplining members, often using ad hoc committees or direct floor actions, but the Ethics Committee introduced a standardized framework for self-discipline, reflecting the growing relevance of matters concerning ethics since the 1960s.^[6]

As a result of the criminal investigation of Majority LeaderTom DeLay (R-TX), and lobbyistJack Abramoff, there was pressure on the Ethics Committee to take action to admonish members involved in their activities. However, action was slow and the responsibility for impeding its progress was attributed to then-Speaker of the United States House of RepresentativesDennis Hastert. When the committee did admonish Tom DeLay for a third time, Hastert removed three Republicans from the panel, including chairJoel Hefley, (R-CO). Hastert had his own personal ethical problems, such as when he failed to take action when warned aboutMark Foley's sexual relationships with young congressional pages.^[7] The new chair,Doc Hastings (R-WA), acted to rein in the panel, leading to a Democratic boycott and preventing a quorum. The stalemate lasted three months until Hastings backed down. By then the committee was left broken and unable to take action in the DeLay case, the fullJack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal, or other cases such as that of ranking Ethics Committee DemocratJim McDermott (D-WA), who revealed violations byNewt Gingrich without authorization to the press.^[8][9][10]

On November 16, 2010,Charles Rangel (D-NY) was found guilty on 11 of the 12 charges against him by the adjudicatory subcommittee of the House Ethics Committee. They included solicitation of funds and donations for the non-profit Rangel Center from those with business before the Ways and Means Committee and the improper use of Congressional letterhead and other House resources in those solicitations; for submitting incomplete and inaccurate financial disclosures, for using an apartment as an office despite having Congressional dealings with its landlord and for failing to pay taxes on a Dominican villa.^[11][12][13]

On March 29, 2010, the OCE released a report dated January 28, 2010, that concluded Rep.Nathan Deal (R-GA) appeared to have improperly used his office staff to pressure Georgia officials to continue the exclusive, no-bid state vehicle inspection program that generated hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for his family's auto salvage business, Gainesville Salvage & Disposal.^[14]The Ethics Committee never reported or commented on any investigation of Deal.^[15] On March 1, 2010, Deal resigned his seat saying he was concentrating on a run for governor, which excluded him from the Office of Congressional Ethics' jurisdiction.^[16][17] Besides Deal, another Georgia Republican, Rep.Paul Broun, accused of paying a consultant with taxpayer funds in his 2014 bid for a U.S. Senate race, avoided answering to charges by losing that primary and leaving office.^[18][19]

The OCE discovered, via a difficult investigation, that a 2013 trip nine members took to Azerbaijan was paid for by funds laundered for the purpose from the Azerbaijani government. The Ethics committee had asked the OCE to drop the case, only approving release of a summary finding in 2015, deeming the full report "not appropriate for release because the referral followed the OCE Board’s decision not to cease its investigations."^[20]

On January 2, 2017, one day before the115th United States Congress was scheduled to convene for its first session, the House Republican majority voted 119–74 to effectively place the OCE under direct control of the House Ethics Committee, making any subsequent reviews of possible violations of criminal law by Congressional members dependent upon approval following referral to the Ethics Committee itself, or to federal law enforcement agencies. The new rules would have prevented the OCE from independently releasing public statements on pending or completed investigations.^[21][22] House Judiciary Committee chairBob Goodlatte (R-Va.) defended the action on the rules amendment saying it "builds upon and strengthens the existing Office of Congressional Ethics by maintaining its primary area of focus of accepting and reviewing complaints from the public and referring them, if appropriate, to the Committee on Ethics."^[23] House Republicans reversed their plan to gut the OCE less than 24 hours after the initial vote, under bipartisan pressure from Representatives, their constituents and the president-elect,Donald Trump.^[24] In addition to negative Trumptweets, criticism was widespread including fromJudicial Watch, theProject on Government Oversight, former RepresentativeBob Ney (R-OH), who was convicted of receiving bribes, and Abramoff, the lobbyist who provided such bribes.^[25]

Former committee chairs and ranking members are below.^[26]

• United States Senate Select Committee on Ethics
• List of United States House of Representatives committees

• Committee on Ethics, official site (Archive)
• House Ethics Committee. Legislation activity and reports, Congress.gov.

• Committees of the United States House of Representatives
• Ethics organizations
• 1798 establishments in the United States
• Organizations established in 1798
• Parliamentary committees on justice

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles with hCards