Ethics Panel Rejects Complaint Against Seven Lawmakers in Earmark Probe

The House Ethics Committee has cleared seven lawmakers accused of steering hundreds of milions of dollars worth of govenment contracts -- "earmarks" -- to firms represented by a lobbying outfit that gave them all campaign contributions,

The investigation by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, the formal name of the ethics panel, said in a statement Friday, "simply put because a (House) member sponsors an earmark for an entity that also happens to be a campaign contributor does not. on these two facts alone, support a claim that a member's actions are being influenced by campaign contributions."

In other words, without evidence of a quid pro quo -- a direct cause and effect -- a congressman can argue that his actions in helping to secure government money for particular companies or projects were undertaken independent of campaign donations from the group lobbying for the contracts.

"They found no cause. They basically said we were completely exonerated," one of the seven, Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), told the Washington Post. "We screened everyrthing. It didn't make a difference how well we knew someone."

The lobbying firm that gave to the House members, the PMA group, went out of business a year ago after an FBI raid of its suburban Virginia offices.

One those under investigation, the late Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, chaired the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, where the other six also served as members.

In addition to Moran, they included Reps. Norm Dicks (D- Wash.); Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio); Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) Peter J. Visclosky (D-Ind.) and C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.).

Ethics in government advocates sharplly criticized the report and and pointed to sections in the 305-page document that inicated private companies thought their contributions helped them get earmarked money.

In a separate case, the ethics committee ruled that Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.), should have known that conferences he attended at Caribbean resorts were underwritten by corporations, a violation of House rules.









"They found no cause. They basically said we were completely exonerated," one of the seven, Rep, James Moran (D-Va.), told the Washington Post. "We screened everything. It iddn't make a differenc ehow ell we knew someone."