WASHINGTON — As lawmakers wrestle this week with overhauling ethics and lobbying guidelines for Congress, they need only to look to the states for sobering examples of how hard it is to curb political malfeasance.
Many states made rule changes years ago that the House and Senate are now contemplating. But even those that imposed the toughest restrictions and oversight continue to grapple with problems of corruption and how to keep it in check.
In about the last year, charges of political wrongdoing have surfaced in nearly a dozen states, including Alaska, Kentucky, New Mexico and Ohio.
The scandals underscore that policing political ethics "is a work in progress, as with any of these efforts to regulate unfortunately what is human nature -- exercising power in a way that can be in one's self-interest," said Kathay Feng, executive director of California Common Cause.
Nearly two dozen states, including California, have established some sort of outside oversight of their legislatures. But it is a patchwork quilt of panels with varying degrees of independence, authority and funding -- and uneven track records of effectiveness, proponents of changes in congressional ethics rules acknowledge.
Still, several watchdog groups say the time has come for Congress to create an independent commission that would investigate ethics complaints against lawmakers and turn over its findings to House and Senate ethics committees for action. Such a move, good-government groups say, is the only way to overcome the deep reluctance members of Congress have shown in scrutinizing their peers.
The idea is likely to face stiff resistance on Capitol Hill, where many lawmakers already are balking at more modest reform proposals put forward by the Republican leadership.
For instance, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) has backed off a push to permanently ban private groups from financing travel by lawmakers. He intends to propose a temporary moratorium on such travel through the end of the year, giving House members more time to consider the issue.
In the Senate, GOP-backed legislation would crack down on travel and gifts, make it harder for lawmakers to add funding into bills for special projects that benefit their states and require members of Congress to wait two years instead of one before returning to Capitol Hill as lobbyists. Key committees will start grappling with these proposals this week.
