Ethics Reform Act of 2006

The Ethics Reform Act of 2006 proposed a significant overhaul of how Congress monitors its own conduct by replacing the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct with a new, independent Ethics Commission. This independent body would have taken over the responsibility of investigating potential ethical violations by lawmakers and overseeing the registration and reporting requirements for lobbyists.

For the public, the bill aimed to increase transparency by requiring lobbyists to file disclosure reports quarterly rather than twice a year and ensuring these records were available for free online. By moving oversight to an independent commission and streamlining public access to lobbying data, the legislation sought to provide citizens with more frequent and accessible information regarding the influence of special interests in Washington.