Ethics leaders could end panel impasse

WASHINGTON, June 30 (UPI) -- U.S. congressional leaders reported progress over an impasse that has kept the U.S. House ethics committee from conducting business.

The ethics panel -- an even 5-5 grouping of Republican and Democratic members of the House -- has had one session since the 109th Congress convened in January, despite a growing backlog of requested investigations.

Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and chairman of the committee, wanted his chief of staff to head the committee's staff but Democratic members said such a move could make the panel partisan.

This week Hastings and ranking minority member Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., said an agreement was near that would allow the panel's chief counsel to be in charge of committee staff, The New York Times reported Thursday. That is contingent on Hastings and Mollohan agreeing on who should be chief counsel.

Mollohan told the Times, "I would call it an agreement in principle thought it is not done until it's done."

Among cases awaiting the ethics committee is one involving questions of travel by Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and members of his staff and whether a lobbyist improperly paid for the trips.