According to an outline of the proposal and knowledgeable sources, outside individuals and groups will not be allowed to file complaints against members either to the OCE or the ethics committee and the panel lacks enforcement powers, both issues for which the watchdogs have lobbied hard.

Pelosi charged the task force with creating an independent ethics panel comprised of non-members in response to widespread criticism that Congress, and the House in particular, had a poor record of policing itself. Democrats capitalized on a series of GOP corruption scandals last year, winning back Congress in part because of them. Pelosi pledged to run the most ethical Congress in history and watchdog groups are now holding her feet to the fire.

The Campaign Legal Center, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters and Public Citizen said the proposal falls short of providing an effective solution to the basic ethics enforcement problems that exist in the House.

“The new Office of Congressional Ethics set forth in the outline of the proposal is being given a job to do without the authority needed to do the job,” the reform groups said in a statement released Friday. “It is an Office with handcuffs on.”

The groups that are now calling on Democratic leaders to strengthen the proposal are the same ones that publicly praised the lobbying and ethics bill that Congress enacted earlier this year. The groups now want to ensure that those reforms have the enforcement mechanisms needed to be taken seriously and serve as a deterrent against corruption.

While the groups laud Democrats for creating an outside panel made up of non-lawmakers to weigh ethics charges against lawmakers, they want to know whether the panel will have adequate staff, tools and resources to carry out its mission.

They also bemoan the lack of subpoena power, which they believe denies the ethics office the ability to gather facts, interview essential witnesses and provide a rigorous investigative process.

“The bottom line is that an effective inquiry into an ethics matter requires subpoena power or access to subpoena power, and such power is denied to the Office,” the groups wrote.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal-leaning group that has filed several complaint letters to the ethics committee against members on both sides of the aisle, separately slammed the proposal because it would not allow outside groups or individuals to file formal ethics complaints against lawmakers. Right now only members can file a complaint to the ethics committee that automatically triggers an ethics investigation.

Melanie Sloan, the group’s executive director, said the new ethics rules would be undermined if the OCE proposal is enacted.

“Despite scandal after scandal and a new Congress that promised to change Capitol Hill’s  ‘culture of corruption,’ it appears that the months wasted haggling over new ethics rules have been all for naught,” she said.  “Given that the new Office of Congressional Ethics will not accept complaints from outsiders nor have subpoena power, in effect, the song remains the same.  All we have here is another layer of bureaucracy added to prevent members from being held accountable for their unethical activities.”

Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami responded to the criticism by saying that the latest proposal for the OCE is not necessarily the final version.

“This is a draft report that is being reviewed and it is not surprising that reform groups would weigh in with their views as the proposal works its way through the process,” he said.

Common Cause, another national watchdog group, however, is supporting the latest proposal for an outside ethics office as good step forward. Sarah Dufendach, the vice president for legislative affairs of the group, said outside groups could still file informal complaints and could recommend that the ethics committee subpoena witnesses or information.

She also praised the transparency provisions that allow outsiders to see whether the ethics committee is acting on complaints.