My must read of the day is "Mandatory House Ethics Training? Some Incoming Freshmen Don't See the Point," in Roll Call:
Minnesota Republican Tom Emmer, the staunchly conservative congressman-elect preparing to replace retiring Rep. Michele Bachmann, drew three takeaways from his recent training on House ethics rules.
"Pay for everything yourself, don’t take any gifts, and — if you have a question about either of those two rules — here’s the people you call," Emmer quipped Tuesday morning, resting up in the basement of the Capitol Hill Club after a chilly photo shoot on the East Front Capitol steps with his fellow freshmen. "It’s that basic."
Emmer and three other incoming members preparing to replace House lawmakers leaving Washington with open ethics reviews, all seemed to feel confident they were well-equipped to navigate Congress within the bounds of the 675 pages of rules governing the House, after a three-hour ethics briefing on the first day of the second week of orientation.
The session, featuring staff from the House Ethics Committee, the Office of Compliance and the Office of House Employment Counsel was helpful, according to Emmer, but nothing new. With nearly a decade of city council service, six years in the Minnesota House and a career as a lobbyist and lawyer under his belt, the 53-year-old said he is familiar with "conflicts of interest" and ethics policies.
Orientation is tedious, no doubt, and some of the orientation new congressmen sit through is unnecessary, but the ethics training is not.
Every single lawmaker who gets in trouble for breaking rules tends to eventually argue they didn't realize what they were doing was against the rules—or it was a "bookkeeping error"—but whatever it was, it usually involves misusing or misappropriating money. They pay it back, and hope everyone moves on.
To people who don't live in D.C. "I didn't know" probably seems like a plausible excuse, because there are quite a few rules. They seem overwhelming and complex, but if you've worked on the hill, even as an intern, you've watched the ethics videos and sat through more than one class. I sat through them at the start of a month-long internship where my sole responsibilities were answering the phone and leading capitol tours. Lawmakers are well aware of the rules; when they break them, it's usually because they choose to ignore them.
So until lawmakers decide to stop violating ethics rules, or using "I didn't know" as an excuse, every lawmaker and member of their staff should be sitting in those classes—and they shouldn't complain about it.