{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://web.archive.org/web/20130917001943/http://www.vitter.senate.gov:80/newsroom/press/vitter-requests-ethics-investigation-of-majority-leader-reid-and-senator-boxer", "Vitter Requests Ethics Investigation of Majority Leader Reid and Senator Boxer", "2013-09-13", "2013", "2013-09", "Republican", "House", "LA", "David Vitter", "V000127", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Vitter Requests Ethics Investigation of Majority Leader Reid and Senator Boxer\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tRegarding Reid and Boxer attempt to intimidate and bribe members to act and vote in a certain manner regarding the congressional exemption from Obamacare\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFriday, September 13, 2013\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t(Washington, D.C.) \u2013 U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) today sent a letter to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics requesting an investigation of Senators Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and their respective staffs for violating the Committee\u2019s rules by proposing and circulating through the press legislation that ties Members\u2019 personal healthcare benefits to their performance of specific acts and votes.\nVitter is fighting to end the Obamacare exemption for Congress and Washington. The exemption could take effect on October 1, 2013 without a legislative fix. Vitter's amendment would reverse and clarify the decision by the Office of Personnel and Management (OPM) on Obamacare. The legislation requires that all Members of Congress, the President, Vice President, and all political appointees in the Administration must purchase their health insurance on the Obamacare Exchange without the help of taxpayer-funded subsidies. Congressional staff would be prohibited from receiving any contribution greater than what they would receive if they were not employed by a congressional office. Cosponsors include Senators Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.).\nThe text of the letter is below.\n  September 13, 2013\nThe Honorable Barbara Boxer, Chair  The Honorable Johnny Isakson, Vice Chair   Senate Select Committee on Ethics  Hart Building, Room 220   Washington, DC 20510\nRe: Request for Investigation of Senator Harry Reid, Senator Barbara Boxer, and their respective staffs\nDear Chairwoman Boxer and Vice Chairman Isakson:\nI respectfully request that the Senate Select Committee on Ethics investigate whether Senator Harry Reid, Senator Barbara Boxer, and their respective staffs violated the Committee\u2019s Rules by proposing and circulating through the press legislation that ties Members\u2019 personal healthcare benefits to their performance of specific acts and votes. This is attempted bribery, and the exact sort of behavior that the Senate Ethics Committee has previously condemned.\nNews reports indicate that Senator Reid, Senator Boxer, and their staffs took the above concrete actions, thereby threatening their colleagues in the Senate with increased personal healthcare costs if they do not vote a certain way on a particular amendment proposed by me concerning the 2010 Affordable Care Act. As more fully explained below, Senator Reid's and Senator Boxer\u2019s offering of such a quid pro quo arrangement to their Senate colleagues is a violation of this Committee\u2019s Rules and flies in the face of its enforcement policies articulated in previous ethics matters.\nQuestions for Senators Reid and Boxer, and Their Staffs\nIf Senators Reid and Boxer, and their staffs, assert that they have not been involved in this Democratic intimidation and payoff scheme, then they should be forced by your Committee to answer the following questions under threat of perjury:\n1) When did you become aware of the Democratic-lead plan to tie Senators\u2019 personal healthcare benefits to their official actions? Have you, as Senate Majority Leader and Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, taken any actions to prevent this bribery scheme from being implemented?  2) The news organization Politico has reported that this scheme was \u201cdrafted by staff in response to requests by several Democratic senators\u2026it was discussed at a Senate Democratic lunch on Thursday.\u201d Who are the Democratic staff members that drafted this legislation?   3) Who specifically are the \u201cseveral Democratic senators\u201d who requested that this legislation be drafted?  4) Did Senators Reid and Boxer attend the referenced Senate Democratic lunch where this legislation was discussed? If yes, were either or both of them a part of such discussion?  5) Was ethics guidance requested from this Committee by the involved staffers and/or the several Democratic Senators who proposed this bribery scheme? If so, what guidance was provided?\nRequest for Chair Boxer\u2019s Recusal\nThe Chair of the Ethics Committee is in a position of unique importance, and her integrity and credibility must be beyond reproach. Until sworn answers are provided to the above outlined questions that prove she was not in any way involved in the development of the outlined intimidation tactics, I respectfully request that Chair Boxer recuse herself from this matter. It is absurd on its face to think that the Committee can fairly and impartially address the potential ethics violations outlined herein when the Committee\u2019s Chair and her staff appear to have orchestrated them in the first place, or at best were aware of them and did nothing to stop the violations, therefore becoming co-conspirators.\nThis situation is especially egregious because news reports indicate that the Democratic scheme includes use of the Senate Ethics Committee process to intimidate senators and influence their official actions and votes.\nUpon proof or Senator Boxer\u2019s complicity in this scheme, the minimum consequence for such behavior should be her removal from the Committee.\nFacts and Precedent\nIn response to my proposal and call for a vote on my amendment to reverse the Office of Personnel Management\u2019s Congressional exemption from the Affordable Care Act, Senator Reid and Boxer have apparently lead an effort to employ political scare tactics, personal attacks, and threats that would affect each Senator\u2019s personal finances (i.e. bribery). News reports indicate that one of these proposals would prohibit the employer contribution to any \u201cMember of Congress who has offered an amendment in the House of Representatives or the Senate that would prohibit such contributions on behalf of other individuals, or who has voted for the adoption of such an amendment.\u201d Such an arrangement, whereby the Senate Majority Leader and the Chair of this Committee are threatening to take away their colleagues\u2019 healthcare coverage subsidy if they do not vote a certain way, at worst constitutes bribery and a quid pro quo arrangement, and at best amounts to improper conduct reflecting discreditably on the Senate.\nEven if the proposed amendment is not actually introduced, the fact that such legislation has not only been drafted, but also released to the press, has already induced the intended intimidating effect. Politico described the scheme as \u201ca hardball move\u201d by the perpetrators, and the ethics violation has now occurred.\nThe Senate Ethics Manual makes clear that personal financial penalties may not be used to induce Senators to take an official act. In addition, this Committee has been clear that Senators may not hold government officials captive by tying their personal finances or benefits to their official acts. As recently as 2012, this Committee explained:\nAs stated in the Code of Ethics for Government Service, \u201cpublic office is a public trust.\u201d A government employee must not be influenced by extraneous factors when making decisions and \u201cnever accept for himself or his family, favors or benefits under circumstances which might be construed by reasonable persons as influencing the performance of governmental duties.\u201d\nIn this case, Senator Reid's and Senator Boxer\u2019s tying Senators\u2019 personal healthcare benefits to their official actions undermines these principles. If a senator voted for Senator Reid's and Senator Boxer\u2019s favored amendment, and against my amendment, it would appear that his or her decision was based on personal interests, and not the public interest.\nIn addition, the federal bribery statute makes it a crime to \u201cdirectly or indirectly, corruptly give[], offer[] or promise[] anything of value to any public official \u2026 with intent \u2026 to influence any official act.\u201d The phrase \u2018anything of value\u2019 in bribery and related statutes has consistently been given a broad meaning, to carry out the congressional purpose of punishing misuse of public office.\u201d Just as Courts have recognized that the promise of higher-paying employment is a \u201cthing of value\u201d for purposes of the statute, the employer contribution that is being threatened to be withheld from Members who do not vote the way that Senators Reid and Boxer prefer is clearly also a \u201cthing of value,\u201d and therefore subjects the members and staff involved in this scheme to potential bribery prosecution.\nI request that the Committee immediately investigate Senator Reid's and Senator Boxer\u2019s attempt to induce official action by their Senate colleagues by threatening to take away their healthcare benefits if they do not vote for their proposal and against my amendment.\nRespectfully submitted,  David Vitter  United States Senate", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://web.archive.org/web/20130917001943/http://www.vitter.senate.gov:80/newsroom/press/vitter-requests-ethics-investigation-of-majority-leader-reid-and-senator-boxer"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4412072487175465, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}