Steve Cohen: “today the Senate will pass H.R. 3235, the Office of Government Ethics [OGE] Authorization Act of 1996. OGE was created…”

“today the Senate will pass H.R. 3235, the Office of Government Ethics [OGE] Authorization Act of 1996. OGE was created by the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 to provide overall direction to the executive branch in developing policies to prevent conflicts of interest and ensure ethical conduct by executive branch officers and employees. Senator Levin and I have long been proponents of strong ethics laws. We serve as the chairman and the ranking minority member on the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management and the District of Columbia which has jurisdiction over ethics matters within the executive branch. Senator Levin and I have made many changes to strengthen the ethics laws since OGE was created. We authored the Independent Counsel provisions of the Ethics in Government Act which provides for the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate allegations of criminal wrongdoing by top level executive branch officials, and we worked together to strengthen the revolving door and lobbying disclosure laws. Last year, I, along with Senator Levin, introduced S. 699, a bill to reauthorize OGE.”