The Senate has formed a special committee in lieu of the questions whether Senators’ introduction of certain bills in Congress violate the conflict of interest provisions.
The resolution calls for the establishment of an internal oversight body to investigate possible ethics violations and disciplinary procedures and sanctions to punish members who have violated ethics rules.The special committee however said the recommendation of a bill screening process is not advisable because it could be burdensome.The Senate Committee of the Whole in its committee report said that the Senate not adopt recommendation “because an ethics education program would be unnecessary and establishing a screening process to determine that every bill introduced in the Senate is ethically sound would create an extremely heavy administrative burden for the Senate.”The resolution said that the burden would slowdown the Senate’s work considering that the body’s staff and resources are already highly taxed by the demands of the legislative process.In accordance with the resolution the Senate has earlier introduced Senate Resolution No. 7-78, which authorizes the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Governmental Affairs to oversee all ethical issues related to the Senate.
