Ethics Panel Issues Inauguration Warning

21 Nov 2008 // The House ethics committee warned members not to accept any offers from lobbyists or other private entities to pay for receptions to celebrate the inauguration or members’ swearing-in ceremony.

Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas), the acting chairman of the panel and Rep. Doc Hastings (Wash.), the ranking Republican, issued a memo Thursday afternoon after receiving inquiries about whether lobbyists or other private groups could pay for inauguration and swearing-in receptions in members’ honor.

“Such arrangements are not permissible as the payment of the costs of the event would constitute an impermissible gift to the member under the House gift rule,” warned the senior members of the panel.

Ethics rules, however, do allow members to use campaign funds to host swearing-in receptions for supporters in their House offices or another House room as long as the events are not campaign-related. For instance, the invite-list for such events cannot be limited to campaign contributors, according to the memo. Campaign funds also can be used to pay for inaugural receptions in House offices “or elsewhere,” an apparent allowance for off-campus events.

It is unclear from the memo whether members may use their taxpayer-funded office allowance to host an event in connection with either January ceremony.

“Questions about the use of the Members’ Representational Allowance to hold an event in relation to either ceremony should be directed to the Committee on House Administration,” they wrote.

Members are free to show up at lobbyist-sponsored receptions Jan. 6, the day of the swearing-in ceremony, and Jan. 20, inauguration day, as long as there is a reasonable expectation that at least 25 people who are not congressional employees also will be there. That rule applies as long as the invitation came from the event organizer and not a person or entity that simply bought tickets or donated to the event. The reception also must be connected to the member’s or staffer’s official duties, which the ethics committee has loosely interpreted in the past.

The memo also reminded members and staffers about the so-called “toothpick rule” – that members or staffers also may attend any reception where the food is limited to appetizers and drinks and doesn’t constitute “a meal.”

Finally, the memo reiterated the basics about the gift rule, that members and staff can accept virtually anything, as long as its fair market value is less than $50, subject to the limitation of $100 in gifts from any one source in a calendar year.

The ethics panel also issued two other memos Thursday afternoon. One reminded departing members and staff about the rules barring members and top staffers from accepting jobs as lobbyists and the requirement that members and staffers report any employment negotiations with private entities or firms to the ethics panel.

A third memo reminded members and staffers that all House employees, other than new employees, must received the required ethics training by Dec. 31, 2008 and “each Member, officer, committee and other legislative office” must submit certification forms confirming that they did so by Jan. 31, 2009.

“If a member, officer, committee or other legislative office has current employees who did not satisfy the training requirement, the letter should identify these individuals by name and provide an explanation as to why each such employee did not satisfy the requirement,” Green and Hastings wrote in the memo.