Ethics committee to investigate Rep. Richardson
By LARRY MARGASAK
Associated Press
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  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rep. Laura Richardson charged Friday the House Ethics Committee has singled her out for scrutiny because she's African-American.
Richardson, D-Calif., effectively announced the committee's investigation before the panel revealed it, accusing fellow lawmakers of ignoring wrongdoing by others in order to focus on her.
The ethics committee is looking into whether she improperly used staff for political purposes.
The committee is composed of five members from each party. The ranking Democrat is a Hispanic, Rep. Linda Sanchez of California. Other Democratic members are Rep. Donna Edwards, an African-American from Maryland, and Rep. Pedro Pierluisi who represents Puerto Rico. The five Republicans are all white males.
"We argue that the committee has chosen to unjustly target its investigations concerning use of official House resources for political purposes on certain members, while overlooking the well-publicized misuse of official House resources for personal purposes by numerous other members of Congress," Richardson said in a statement.
"Specifically, numerous members have used their House offices for personal lodging, in some cases for years, saving tens of thousands of dollars personally at taxpayers' expense," her statement said. "Under House rules, personal use of House resources is as impermissible as political use."
A number of House members have publicly acknowledged sleeping in their offices, but the Ethics Committee has not prohibited the practice.
Richardson also said she would "explore the issue of whether the Ethics Committee has engaged in discriminatory conduct in pursuing two investigations against me while simultaneously failing to apply the same standards to, or take the same actions against, other members - of whom the overwhelming majority are white males."
The Ethics Committee last year concluded after a seven-month investigation that Richardson did not receive an improper gift from a lender, nor did she fail to disclose real property, income and liabilities on her financial disclosure forms.
This is not the first time the committee has investigated use of congressional staff for political purposes.
The committee in 2006 concluded an investigation of Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., with a statement that the lawmaker agreed to specific steps to ensure that his staff was not used for political purposes. The committee did not issue a finding that Conyers misused his staff, but noted that the lawmaker acknowledged a "lack of clarity" in his communications with staff regarding their official duties.
The statement said Conyers "accepted responsibility for his actions." |
