Friday, October 30, 2009 8:50 AM

30-Plus Ethics Inquiries Accidentally Revealed

From this morning's Earlybird:

• "House ethics investigators have been scrutinizing the activities of more than 30 lawmakers and several aides in inquiries about issues including defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling, according to a confidential House ethics committee report prepared in July," the Washington Post reports. "The report appears to have been inadvertently placed on a publicly accessible computer network, and it was provided to The Washington Post by a source not connected to the congressional investigations. The committee said Thursday night that the document was released by a low-level staffer."

• "Nearly half the members of a powerful House subcommittee in control of Pentagon spending are under scrutiny by ethics investigators in Congress, who have trained their lens on the relationships between seven panel members and an influential lobbying firm founded by a former Capitol Hill aide," the Post also reports.

• The House Ethics Committee Thursday "again slammed the year-old Office of Congressional Ethics -- declaring the OCE's earlier review of the" case of Rep. Sam Graves, D-Mo., "case and recommendation that it merited further consideration by the Ethics Committee was procedurally 'deficient,'" CongressDailyAM (subscription) reports. "Immediately firing back were the OCE's co-chairmen, former Reps. David Skaggs, D-Colo., and Porter Goss, R-Fla., declaring there were no procedural problems."

• "Business groups blasted the House healthcare bill released Thursday, and a key trade association for doctors declined to endorse it," The Hill reports. "Health insurance and pharmaceutical industries that take hard hits from the bill also took shots, saying it would drive up costs for seniors and companies alike."