Ethics Panel Takes Up Bell’s DeLay Complaint [View All]

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/49_143/news/6019-1.html (subscription required)

The House ethics committee on Tuesday formally accepted an ethics complaint filed by Rep. Chris Bell (D-Texas) against Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), marking the first step in deciding whether the panel will actually investigate Bell’s allegations against the powerful Texas lawmaker.

Reps. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.) and Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct’s chairman and ranking member, respectively, now have several options for resolving Bell’s complaint.

Hefley and Mollohan can recommend to the full committee that Bell’s complaint be dismissed in whole or in part. Alternately, they could send a letter to DeLay admonishing or cautioning him on his activities, or else set up an investigative subcommittee to conduct a formal probe of the charges. Or they could ask for more time to study the complaint before taking action.

Hefley and Mollohan have five legislative days or 45 calendar days to make a decision on their recommendation, and they can ask for another 45 days to act. If no decision is reached by then, committee rules require that an investigative subcommittee be established, although either Hefley and Mollohan can move at any time to place a request for an investigative subcommittee on the full committee’s agenda, at which point one would be created only if a majority of the bipartisan, 10-member panel agrees.