Republicans Attempt To Gut Ethics Commission
In a Jan. 15 story, “North Dakota Republican leaders introduce bill to implement ethics measure,” The Forum reported that GOP legislators in Bismarck have written a bill to create the voter-mandated ethics commission for the state; but it seems they are attempting to gut it in any way they can.
According to the story, “the bill narrowly defines what it means to influence state government action to ‘promoting or opposing the final adoption of a rule by an administrative agency’”.
So in other words, you can lobby for bills, you can lobby for amendments to bills, you can write bills yourself and lobby for them to be introduced, you can lobby for absolutely anything you like, as long as your bill doesn’t directly affect a state agency, and as long as you don’t say the magic taboo words, “Please vote yes on the final version of this bill when it comes to the floor.”
Republicans make clear their total corruption and avarice with this proposal. It is a disgusting attempt to thwart the will of North Dakota voters, and it should be defeated.
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Please, if you believe in responsible government, write your state senators and representatives to tell them to change this bill or withdraw it.
When we said we wanted an ethics commission, we meant one with teeth.
