The House Ethics Committee will decide Monday whether to launch a full investigation into alleged ethics violations by Rep. Shelley Berkley (D., Nev.), who is accused of advocating for a matter in which she had a personal financial interest.
The Las Vegas Sun reports:
At the very least, Monday should yield the details of the Office of Congressional Ethics’ review that put Berkley before the committee in the first place. …
In this case, Berkley joined other members of the Nevada delegation to write a letter pushing federal officials not to close a kidney transplant center--the only one in the Las Vegas Valley at University Medical Center, where her husband Larry Lehrner’s nephrology practice has a contract to provide care. Berkley also wrote a letter to the chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee with jurisdiction over Medicare petitioning him not to lower reimbursement rates for doctors providing dialysis treatments.
"This is precisely the type of ethics allegation that merits a full investigation," said Craig Holman, executive director of Public Citizen, a non-profit government watchdog group in Washington, DC. "When public officials are using their official position in order to provide personal financial benefit to themselves or their family, that is one of the most serious ethics violations that befalls Congress."