Creating a Stronger Ethics Law

The House approved dozens of pieces of legislation this week in advance of the “crossover” deadline on May 1. The most important piece of legislation on our calendar was a major reform package to our two-decades old ethics laws.

First, a little background. The House Republican Caucus, the House Democratic Caucus, and the Governor’s Office each had study committees into the matter. All of the committees shared information and ideas over the past six months. The Republican Caucus and the Governor each submitted final reports of what each would like to see in the law. Dozens of meetings were held, public testimony was taken, and public input was encouraged.

Over the past two months, House Majority Leader Bruce Bannister, Caucus Ethics Study Committee Chairman Murrell Smith, and others took the best ideas and began discussing ethics with their counterparts across the aisle and in the Governor’s Office. The result is the legislation that we will consider on Tuesday.

The legislation:

There was a lot of misinformation spread about this bill from people who are truly opponents of ethics reform, but drape themselves in the banner of “Ethics Champions.”

Ultimately, this is a significant change in how the public will hold their public officials accountable. One major complaint from the public was that the House and Senate judge themselves on ethics, and even though most states and Congress operate in the same manner, it was time for our state to lead on ethics reform.

We have long touted our ethics laws as some of the strongest in the nation, and they were when they were originally written two decades ago. Since that time a lot has changed in politics. We have a proliferation of political action committees, but more importantly, we use tools today that weren’t widely used in the early 1990s – simple things like cell phones, ATM machines, and the Internet. Even six years ago, people rarely contributed to political campaigns online. We hardly give any of these things a second thought today, but our law doesn’t reflect those changes.

It is time to change. It is time for our conservative state to promote a conservative ethics reform plan that strengthens the law, streamlines the complaint process, and makes public officials more accountable.

It is an honor to serve you and your family in the General Assembly. If you ever find yourself in need of assistance navigating state government, or if you have ideas on issues you want me to share with my colleagues in the House, don’t hesitate to contact me at tommy@tommypope.com.