Ethical Conduct of Congress Members

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The Ethical Conduct of Members of Congress and their Staff
Every institution has its own set of laws regarding the conduct every member is expected to follow. Some members, however, will attempt to break these laws. A former congressman for Louisiana, Willian Jefferson, was charged with 16 counts of corruption, money laundering, using his position to bribe other officials and racketeering. A technology company called iGate provided his campaign funds. The company in return expected him to use his connections to persuade the army to award iGate tenders (Johnston and Zeleny 1).
Jefferson violated the fourth law that states that no member of the house should receive gifts from other people (“Code of Official Conduct” 1). He also failed to declare the money earned from social gatherings as campaign contributions. The House of Ethics also investigated Representative David Schweikert and his chief of staff, Oliver Schwab. Schweikert allegedly paid Schwab more money than staff members are allowed to earn (Connolly 1). Schwab had to return some of his earnings as the payments violated of the third law that requires that no employee of the house may receive compensation for personal interest (“Code of Official Conduct” 1).
Representative Chris Collins, on the other hand, used his campaign money to cater for his legal bills. The FBI was investigating the Congressman for insider trading (Schwartz 1). According to the “Code of Official Conduct” (1), Collins broke the sixth law that stipulates that a member should not use funds from campaigns for personal use.

The most important code of conduct that all these members of Congress violated, however, was the one that requires a member of Congress to behave in a way that positively reflects upon the house.
In summary, members of the Congress should recognize that their power cannot exceed that of the state. The code of conduct is in place to make sure they or their employees do not use their status to break the law. The system has proved successful over the years as it has maintained the integrity of Congress.

Works Cited
“Code of Official Conduct.” Statement of the Chairwoman and Ranking Member of the Committee on Ethics Regarding Representative John Duncan, Jr. | House Committee on Ethics, Committee on Ethics, ethics.house.gov/publication/code-official-conduct.
Connolly, Griffin. “Ethics Panel Announces Investigation Into Rep. Schweikert and Chief of Staff.” Roll Call, 31 May 2018, www.rollcall.com/news/policy/house-ethics-announces-investigation-schweikert-chief-staff.
Johnston, David, and Jeff Zeleny. “Congressman Sought Bribes, Indictment Says.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 June 2007, www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/washington/05jefferson.html.
Schwartz, Brian. “GOP Rep. Chris Collins Used Campaign Funds to Pay Legal Bills for Insider Trading Investigations.” CNBC, CNBC, 10 Aug. 2018, www.cnbc.com/2018/08/09/chris-collins-used-campaign-funds-to-pay-insider-trading-legal-bills.html.