Ethics &
Accountability

High ethical standards are a cornerstone of a functioning and accountable political system that earns the public’s trust.

Too often, though, there is lax or no enforcement of ethics and lobbying laws in Congress and the executive branch.

Many Americans feel members of Congress, government officials, and lobbyists are above the law, using their positions of power for personal or financial gain. Such corruption — or even the appearance of corruption — has a corrosive effect on our democracy, undermining public confidence in the integrity of our most sacred institutions.

To win public trust in our government, it’s imperative we build — and enforce — stronger ethics, accountability, and transparency laws for Congress, the executive branch, and for lobbyists.

We:

• Work to combat attempts to undermine existing accountability mechanisms such as the Office of Congressional Ethics in the House or the Inspector General system, improve their functioning and strengthen their independence.
• Work to establish new and empowered accountability systems, proposing an independent Office of Senate Ethics.
• Push for executive orders to strengthen federal executive branch ethics rules and call out officials that abuse their role.
• Fight against congressional insider trading and call for passage of the bipartisan legislation to ban members of Congress and their families from trading individual stocks.
• Work to close the “shadow lobbying” loophole, a practice that allows officials to participate in activities tantamount to lobbying but without the requirement to register as a lobbyist.

Our impact:

• Spearheaded a coalition of organizations to advance legislation designed to protect the integrity and independence of the Inspectors General system
• Successfully advocated for more than a year for the House Democratic Caucus to publicly release its rules
• Advocated for a bicameral, bipartisan update to Congress’ sexual harassment policy
• Gave a detailed accounting of how the House and Senate ethics committees fail to foster a culture of high ethical standards in Congress
• Fought attempts in the 115th and 118th Congress to covertly gut the independent Office of Congressional Ethics in the House of Representatives