C. Simon Davidson
| May 14, 2013, 1:40 p.m.
Q. I am chief of staff for a member of the House with a question about how House ethics rules might impact staffers on furlough. The recent sequester has cut budgets for members’ offices, and we are working through how to deal with the cuts. I am wondering whether the rules would allow staffers to do part-time work with their former law firms if they are placed on furlough. I know that conflict-of-interest rules prohibit staffers from doing some types of outside work, including legal work for clients. But, would this restriction apply to staffers on furlough? And, would it apply even if the staffers were to do purely administrative work and perform no legal services at a law firm?
C. Simon Davidson
| April 23, 2013, 3:57 p.m.
Q. I have a question about the recent news of an audio recording of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. I know that there has been a great deal of focus on the legality of the recording and it being leaked. But, I have now also seen some news about allegations against McConnell, himself, arising out of the recording. Is there any merit to the charges against McConnell?
C. Simon Davidson
| April 11, 2013, 6:37 p.m.
Q. I am a House staffer with a question about members participating in special “VIP” discount programs that some businesses offer. The member I work for is preparing to buy a new boat, and the company he is buying from has placed him in a special VIP discount program. I’m concerned that this is the type of special treatment that might violate ethics laws. Do the ethics rules permit members to participate in a business’s VIP program?
C. Simon Davidson
| Feb. 26, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
I have a question about investigations by the Office of Congressional Ethics. I’ve read stories about OCE investigations of members where it appeared that the OCE used a witness’s refusal to cooperate with the investigation against the member being investigated, even though the member had no control over the witness’s refusal to cooperate. This made no sense to me. Why should a member be penalized for someone else’s refusal to cooperate with an investigation?
C. Simon Davidson
| Feb. 5, 2013, 6:13 p.m.
Q: I am a staffer for a member of the House, and one of my longtime responsibilities has been arranging his travel. This can be time-consuming as there are lots of hoops to jump through and forms to fill out in order to get the Ethics Committee’s approval for travel expenses to be paid by an outside source. Now I see that the Ethics Committee has issued new travel regulations. I am not an attorney, and the new rules are very lengthy, so I have not read them. But I gather that for travel expenses to be paid by an outside source, we now must obtain Ethics Committee approval 30 days in advance of the travel. I’m not sure that will always be possible for our member, particularly when he is invited on a trip that is less than 30 days away. Is this really a new requirement?
C. Simon Davidson
| Dec. 4, 2012, 7:32 p.m.
This column was born in the wake of the government ethics boom of 2006. In elections that fall, Democrats seized control of Congress, in part by riding a wave of heightened concern about government corruption. Legislation followed, and the issue of ethics enjoyed more public attention than it had received in years.
C. Simon Davidson
| Nov. 13, 2012, 7:44 p.m.
I am a coffee shop owner with a question about election law, of all things. Last week on Election Day, we had a promotion giving away a free cookie to anyone wearing an “I voted” sticker. That evening, someone made an angry post on our Facebook page claiming that our promotion was illegal. My suspicion is that the person who made the post is just not enamored with our shop’s politics, which we tend to be quite open about. Besides, all we were trying to do with the promotion was celebrate people performing their civic duty. This can’t be illegal. Can it?
C. Simon Davidson
| Oct. 29, 2012, 2:43 p.m.
Q: I work for a company that makes sales to the government, and one of my roles is to ensure compliance with government contracting laws. In some recent company discussions about so-called pay-to-play laws, some of our business folks have argued that the cost of strict compliance might outweigh the benefit.
