WASHINGTON -- March 15 -- Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) participated in a Congressional Ethics Coalition news conference calling on the House of Representatives to restore the ethics committee's ability to enforce the House ethics rules and standards.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW spoke earlier today about the need to re-establish the now-defunct ethics committee. "Shady and possibly illegal conduct of a number of members of Congress such as Mobster-in-Chief Tom DeLay, and others with close ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, including Representatives John Doolittle, J.D. Hayworth and Bob Ney, will go un-investigated and unpunished if the House does not put an end to the impasse over ethics The American public has the right to expect that Congress - - charged with policing the conduct of its members -- will do so."

In addition, CREW called upon members of both parties to vote in favor of Minority Leader Pelosi's Privileged Resolution to establish a bipartisan ethics task force that would make recommendations to restore public confidence in the ethics process.

"Members of Congress need to be held accountable for their actions. Without an ethics committee, some members will abide by only the rules they seem to care about -- their own." Melanie Sloan said today. "We ask that the House take up Congressman Mollohan's Resolution to roll back the Republican rules changes to the ethics committee immediately to place ethics, and not partisanship, as a priority in the people's House. "

Copies of Melanie Sloan's statement from the news conference toda are available at httP://www.citizensforethics.org or by contacting Naomi Seligman by phone at 202-588-5565 or press@citizensforethics.org.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a non-profit, progressive legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public officials accountable for their actions.

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