The Republican majority in Congress passed a weak lobbying reform bill late yesterday. Their bill leaves unchanged current ethics rules, which allowed convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, convicted Republican Congressman Duke Cunningham and indicted Congressman Tom Delay, to either break the law or be accused of some heinous abuses of power."I voted no on this weak ethics reform bill because it does very little to rebuild people's confidence in Congress' integrity. To fix it, we should ban gifts to Congress, the Senate and their aides, double to two years the ban on lobbying by former members of Congress, end lavish junkets paid for by private groups and end all pork spending until we balance the budget. Even then, we should force up or down votes on every piece of pork submitted," said Congressman Ford.
"This bill fails even the basic test of common sense. Ethics reform should fix the problem, instead of encouraging and pardoning the same behavior. My Republican colleagues have botched it again," said Ford.
Comments: Once again Congressman Ford is standing up and showing his committment to strong ethics reform in Washington D.C. This is in stark contrast of his U.S. Senate opponents who were unwilling to even say how they would vote on this bill. It is also in stark contrast to John Boehner and the Congressional Republicans who have dismissed ethics reform.
I am confident voters are ready for someone who is willing to fight to see that Washington D.C. is cleaned up and government is turned back over to the people. With that being said, I am confident Harold Ford Jr. will be our next U.S. Senator!
Read about Congressman Ford's actions on ethics reform here! (1 , 2, 3)
Read about John Boehner's views opposing ethics reform here!
Read about John Boehner's broken promises regarding ethics reform here!
