WASHINGTON, March 15 (UPI) -- House Republicans Tuesday killed a Democratic effort to spotlight GOP changes to the body's ethics process.
By a party-line 223-194 vote the House tabled a resolution by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., that would have appointed a bipartisan task force to recommend changes to House ethic rules.
The action was an attempt by Democrats to move on what they say is the Republican leadership's move to inject partisanship in the Ethic Committee by changing ethics rules to make it more difficult for the panel to examine allegations of impropriety on the part of lawmakers.
Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo., -- replaced as ethics committee chairman this year by the GOP leaders after his panel rebuked Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, -- was the only Republican to vote against tabling the measure.
Among the changes proposed is a requirement that a majority of the Ethics panel must approve an investigation before it proceeds.
Opponents to the change say it will guarantee all but the most egregious ethics violations go unpunished because the panel is divided evenly along party line.
Democratic members of the ethics panel effectively shut it down last week when they refused to vote in favor of the changes.
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said Monday he has no intention of reversing course on the new rules.
