FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:
October 21, 2014 Mary Beth Hutchins, 202-400-2721
Cause of Action Calls on Senate Ethics Committee to Answer for Failure to Respond to Ethics Complaint Against Sen. Harry Reid
WASHINGTON – Cause of Action (CoA), a nonprofit government oversight group, today wrote to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics in follow up to a December 2013 ethics complaint CoA filed against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that has received no response from the Committee. CoA’s complaint highlighted Senator Reid’s use of his political clout to lobby U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to reconsider and approve EB-5 immigrant investor visa petitions where the principal entity receiving the foreign funding is a major contributor to the Democratic Party, and, at the time, was represented by the Senator’s son.
CoA’s letter highlights the need for the Committee to provide an explanation for why its 2013 complaint did not lead to a preliminary inquiry, despite CoA providing sufficient evidence.
CoA Executive Director Dan Epstein:
We rely on Congress to conduct oversight of bad government behavior, including investigating its own members to ensure that America’s elected officials are behaving ethically. For over 300 days to pass since our complaint was received with no reasoned notice of the Committee’s determination is unacceptable. The Committee appears to have dismissed Cause of Action’s complaint without engaging in a preliminary inquiry and without explanation, where independent evidence unearthed by the media supports the allegations of misconduct. The American public, who elected their Senators, deserve an ethics committee that takes its role seriously, and our hope is that the public receives an explanation for this delay in oversight.
On October 23, 2014, CoA sent a follow up letter after Senate Ethics claimed it did not receive the ethics complaint in 2013.
About Cause of Action:
Cause of Action is a non-profit, nonpartisan government accountability organization that fights to protect economic opportunity when federal regulations, spending and cronyism threaten it. For more information, visit www.causeofaction.org.
To schedule an interview with Cause of Action’s Executive Director Dan Epstein, contact Mary Beth Hutchins, mary.beth.hutchins@causeofaction.org
###
