After months of delay, the House Ethics Task Force has wrapped up its work and will recommend the creation of an independent ethics office within the House, a proposal Democrats expect to present for House approval in December.

Outside individuals and groups will not be allowed to file complaints against members either to the office or the ethics committee, and the panel lacks subpoena power — two provisions ethics watchdog groups have pushed for, according to an outline of the ethics proposal and knowledgeable sources.

Reps. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) and Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the chairman and ranking member of the task force, have spent months haggling over whether to create an outside panel and what powers it would have. In recent years, and after a series of mainly Republican public corruption cases, the ethics committee has been described as a paper tiger that fails to hold members accountable for breaking House ethics rules.  

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) created the task force at the beginning of the year after Democrats won back the majority at least in part because of the GOP ethics scandals.

The office will initiate investigations on its own while members will continue to submit their complaints to the ethics committee. After an initial review, the ethics office will alert the ethics committee if its board members believe a second-phase review is necessary.

All referrals to the ethics committee will include two documents: one that recommends dismissal or further inquiry or states that the Board vote was a tie, and another that details the office’s findings of fact. Neither document will contain conclusions regarding the validity of the allegations or the guilt or innocence of the person under investigation. Those matters will remain the sole responsibility of the ethics committee.

The ethics committee will then have 45 days or five legislative calendar days — whichever is longer — to review the referral with an option for one extension of the same length. The committee must provide public notice when the committee votes to take some action against a member, when it defers its investigation at the request of the appropriate law enforcement or regulatory agency, such as the Justice Department, or when it establishes an investigative subcommittee.

If a committee investigation continues for a year without reaching a conclusion, the ethics office’s report will be published. All board findings will be published at the close of the Congress in which they were written.