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A authorities watchdog group has filed a proper complaint in opposition to some Democrat members of congress who’ve used official authorities resources for political campaign purposes, in violation of congressional ethics codes.
The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), a nonprofit watchdog group, lodged a proper complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), alleging that dozens of House members are utilizing official House resources “for political purposes…the most obvious violations being members using official government resources to campaign on their political social media accounts or using official government platforms to campaign.”
“Though to some it may seem like a simple thing on the surface, the members choosing to break this law do it for a reason—it advantages them politically,” the complaint states. Included within the checklist of alleged transgressors are former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Cori Bush, D-Mo., Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., amongst others.
“The act of using sanctioned government platforms or resources to spread political messages furthers their cause by both giving the member a wider and less partisan audience than their campaign platforms have, and also by lending their message an ‘official’ credibility that it would not otherwise have,” it reads.
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FACT argues that the lawmakers are in violation of federal legislation, which sates that “appropriations shall be applied only to the objects for which the appropriations were made except as otherwise provided by law.”
House ethics guidelines goal to implement this legislation by additionally prohibiting members from utilizing any official useful resource for campaign or political purposes. An “official resource” is something funded by taxpayers. Examples embrace all authorities buildings and House workplaces, a member’s official web site and social media accounts, and pictures and video from the House flooring or committee proceedings, the complaint outlines.
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Specifically, the complaint cites the Committee on Ethics memo from July 2018 which states {that a} member’s campaign social media account “may not share, like, retweet, etc., a post from an official social media account.”
“Making this situation worse,” the complaint says, “is the nature of the transgression and the ease of proving it— there are no reams of documents to fine-comb through here. Many of these violations are literally published by the Member on a public-facing platform, and evidence of the violation can be found and proven merely by going to Twitter.com.”
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New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
FACT notes that OCE has beforehand recognized “this exact same behavior as ethics violations in past years, but it has simply failed to enforce” them.
The OCE was created in 2008 after the House Ethics Committee “failed to act on legal and ethical violations committed by members, which plainly demonstrated the Ethics Committee’s consistent reluctance to impose penalties against their fellow members and the inadequacy of the U.S. House to self-police,” the complaint highlights.
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“The OCE was designed to act on the public’s behalf and be an independent evaluator to expose ethics violations—not to fall in line with the Ethics Committee and follow its example of inaction. While the ultimate punishment for violations continues to lie with the House Ethics Committee, the OCE’s role is to identify ethical transgressions and bring the facts and laws to the attention of the public, as well as to the Ethics Committee,” it reads.
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