policy
Private: Ensuring the independence of inspectors general (IGs)
Loopholes in our system allow presidents to overreach and fire IGs for political or personal reasons, undermining the public’s ability to hold government officials accountable.
Ethics &
Accountability
Preventing undue influence, corruption, and the appearance of corruption by elected officials, lobbyists, and members of the executive branch.
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
Featured Press
Raw Story: ‘Aren’t we a little more grown up than that?’: Ex-lawmaker rips Congress for ‘dog ate my homework’ excuses
ReFormers Caucus member Brian Baird quoted...
Roll Call: Advocacy groups denounce GOP proposals to ‘gut’ ethics office
Issue One Legislative Director Elise Wirkus cited...
Insider: Ban federal lawmakers and their family members from trading stocks, 37 former lawmakers tell Congress
The Hill: Congressional stock trading ban must include spouses, lawmakers say
The Latest on Ethics & Accountability
Press releases
Senator Menendez (D-NJ) deserves to be censured
In light of the Senate Ethics Committee severely admonishing Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) for ethics violations, Issue One Executive Director Meredith McGehee issued the following statement: “It is a refreshing…
Press releases
White House OMB Director pulls back curtain on the worst of Washington
Issue One ReFormers Caucus Co-chair former Amb. Tim Roemer (D-IN) issued the following statement in response to White House Office of Management and Budget Director and former member of Congress…
Press releases
More than three years after the fact, House Ethics Committee punishes two Democrats who violated House rules
The House Ethics Committee this week publicly reproved two Illinois Democratic members of Congress—one for violating House rules and one for violating federal law. Each case was under review by…
Reports
The Ethics Blind Spot
How the House and Senate ethics committees fail to foster a culture of high ethical standards in Congress...
Read the press release. In “The Ethics Blind Spot,” Issue One analyzes and contrasts the case histories of the two ethics oversight bodies in the U.S. House of Representatives—the House…
Press releases
New Report: The Ethics Blind Spot
How the House and Senate ethics committees fail to foster a culture of high ethical standards in Congress...
A new report from Issue One called “The Ethics Blind Spot” details how in at least 175 public and confidential ethics investigations over the past decade, the House Ethics Committee has compiled…
Press releases
BREAKING: House leadership hides behind shutdown to undermine the Office of Congressional Ethics
Issue One Executive Director Meredith McGehee issued the following statement in response to legislative language in section 407 on the second-to-last page of the much-needed reform package — the Congressional…
Analysis
The numbers behind why the Senate Ethics Committee is a black hole
A recent slew of high-profile cases has brought the U.S. Select Committee on Senate Ethics into the national spotlight. Increased media attention and public scrutiny stemming from cases like Senator…
Op-eds
The Senate ‘ethics’ committee is a black hole where allegations die
This op-ed by Issue One Executive Director Meredith McGehee originally appeared in The Hill. In the face of several highly charged allegations of sexual harassment, the Senate is turning to its…
Press releases
Issue One statement on mistrial in corruption case of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
In response to the New Jersey jury’s inability to arrive at a verdict on the charges of corruption facing New Jersey Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, Issue One Chief of Policy,…
Testimonies & comments
Issue One comments on the Office of Government Ethics’ (OGE) 2018 Strategic Plan
Issue One’s comments on the Office of Government Ethics’ Strategic Plan The Office of Government Ethics (OGE) has released public stakeholder comments to the agency’s 2018 Strategic Plan. Issue One…