Ethics panel pressured to launch PMA probe

The House ethics committee is facing more public pressure to launch a probe into a lobbying firm under investigation by the FBI and its ties to three powerful Democrats.

Four watchdog groups, Democracy 21, Common Cause, Public Citizen and U.S. PIRG, are urging the ethics panel to investigate activities involving PMA Group and Democratic Reps. John Murtha (Pa.), Peter Visclosky (Ind.) and Jim Moran (Va.), all members of the House defense appropriations subcommittee.

{mosads}In a letter sent to the ethics committee Wednesday, the groups called for an investigation aimed at determining whether the campaign contributions from PMA, its employees and clients improperly influenced Democratic lawmakers to dole out earmarks in violation of House ethics rules and “whether any other ethics violations may have occurred in their activities related to these earmarks.”

The House ethics committee is only obligated to respond to formal complaints filed by sitting lawmakers. The panel, however, can initiate investigations on its own volition, and the watchdog groups urged it to do so.

The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), a review board made up of former members of Congress and non-lawmakers, was created last year in response to widespread criticism that the ethics panel was not doing enough to police members’ conduct. It can accept formal complaints from outside groups and private citizens, but cannot look into possible ethics violations that occurred before March 11, 2008.

In a release, the groups noted that most, if not all, of the activities related to PMA Group took place before March of last year, but forwarded a copy of their letter to the OCE “in the event the Office may be looking at this matter under its existing” jurisdiction.

PMA Group shut down after the FBI raided its offices late last year. Numerous published reports before and after that raid have chronicled the millions of dollars in campaign contributions PMA Group and its clients showered on members of Congress, with Murtha, Visclosky and Moran among the top recipients. The three lawmakers also doled out millions of dollars’ worth of earmarks to PMA clients.

“In particular, serious ethics questions have been raised regarding Representatives John Murtha, Peter Visclosky and James Moran,” the watchdogs wrote. “… We further believe that such an investigation is in the best interest of the House as an institution, the Representatives publicly involved in this matter and the American people.”