Chris Murphy: “many members of the freshman class were elected in part because people were tired of the culture of corruption that they…”

“many members of the freshman class were elected in part because people were tired of the culture of corruption that they saw here in Washington and the total lack of accountability for those that broke the law and betrayed the American trust. People out in America look at Washington and they just don't understand how Members of Congress over the past several years could be carted off to Federal prisons while their own body, the Congress of the United States, sat by and did virtually nothing to hold these people accountable for their actions. Today, Congress will pass landmark lobbying reform legislation. Fund- raising will become more transparent, sunlight will be shed on lobbyist influence, the K Street Project will end, and the revolving door for Members of Congress will shut a little bit tighter. But as Congress reduces the influence of people outside the body of Congress, we also need to recommit ourselves to cleaning up our own House by reforming the House ethics process. We will all celebrate our victory today. It will be a critical step to changing how things work in Washington. But we can't stop here. We need to make our ethics process work again by establishing a new citizen ethics panel independent of Congress with the power to initiate and vet ethics enforcement actions. We need this reform not because Members of Congress are corrupt but because they are the victims of simple human nature.”