After a two-year delay at the request of the Justice Department, the House Ethics Committee voted Tuesday to resume its corruption investigation of Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., D-Ill., according to reports by ABC News.
While no criminal charges have been levied against Jackson at this time, the committee will investigate his involvement in a scheme with former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to sell the Senate seat of President Barack Obama. Blagojevich was impeached and removed from office by the Illinois General Assembly.
Here is an inside look at the unique committee and its role in Congress:
* The Committee on Official Standards was created in 1967. It was renamed to the Committee on Ethics at the start of the current Congress.
* According to the Congressional Research Service, the committee was designated a permanent standing committee of the House in 1968 after committee chairman Rep. Melvin Price, D-Ill., introduced a bill keep the ethics process uniform. The bill was approved with some amendments.
* It is the only committee in the U.S. House to have five members from each of the Democrat and Republican parties.
* The first case heard by the committee was in 1798 and involved Rep. Matthew Lyon of Vermont and Rep. Roger Griswold of Connecticut. Lyon was accused of spitting on Griswold during a floor vote. He fell two votes shy of being expelled.
* While the constitution allows the House to discipline its members, no standard set of rules were established until the 1960s.
* The 1990 Ethics Reform Act established a chief counsel to assist House members in understanding the rules of appropriate conduct.
* Twenty additional House members are selected to serve on special subcommittees when they are needed.
* During the 111th Congress, the committee completed or continued investigation on 111 different complaints and resolved 75 of them. They issued 12 completed reports to the House, totaling 15,000 pages of evidence and findings.
* Five members have been expelled, the latest being the 2002 removal of former Rep. Jim Traficant, D-Ohio, for bribery.
* Rep. Charles Rangel, D-NY, was the latest member to be censured by the House. In 2010 he was called to the well in front of the entire body and read a censure resolution by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for improper solicitation of funds and other charges. Twenty-three other members have been censured throughout the history of the House.
Dan McGinnis is a freelance writer, published author and former newspaper publisher. He has been a candidate, campaign manager and press secretary for state and local political campaigns for more than 30 years.
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