mr. speaker , i strongly oppose the changes in the house ethics rules that the republican majority is seeking to adopt today . 
the proposed republican rule changes would cripple the ethics process in the house and dramatically lower the bar for standards of official conduct . 
late yesterday , the republican majority in the house released the details of its rules package for the 109th congress . 
some of the newspapers reported this morning that the majority had abandoned its efforts to loosen rules governing members ' ethical conduct , but this is not the case . 
while the majority backed away from some of its rule changes , the most egregious ethics change remains . 
this provision would make it much more difficult for the committee on standards of official conduct to investigate allegations of wrongdoing by members of the house . 
under current rules , if the ethics committee deadlocks on whether or not to pursue an ethics complaint against a member of the house , the matter automatically goes to an investigative subcommittee . 
under the proposed change , a complaint against a member would be tabled unless a majority votes to take action on it within 45 days . 
since the committee is evenly split with five republicans and five democrats , either political party could simply block an ethics complaint by stonewalling and running out the clock . 
there is no doubt that if the proposed rule change had been in effect during the last congress , no action would have been taken against the members of the house who were reprimanded as a result of the ethics committee 's investigation of bribery allegations raised in connection with the vote on the medicare prescription drug act of 2003 . 
the committee would have deadlocked and the entire matter swept under the rug 45 days after the complaint was made . 
i was listening to the debate on this earlier . 
the chairman of the ethics committee said that he does not favor this change . 
he said he would like it removed . 
why then is the majority leadership pursuing this change , when it is opposed by the ranking republican on the ethics committee ? 
at a time when public confidence in congress is so low and the nation faces so many challenges , it is inexplicable that the first order of business in the new session is to water down the ethics rules in the house and make it even more difficult to discipline lawmakers who abuse their office . 
this should not be a partisan matter . 
the proposed rule change harms the integrity and credibility of the house as an institution , and that reflects badly on all of us , republicans and democrats alike . 
i urge all my colleagues to join me in opposing this assault on ethics enforcement in the house . 
