Ethics Panel Hands Down Holiday Gift Rules — In Rhyme
Time was when business-suited Santas would spend December roaming the corridors of Congress, bestowing all sorts of goodies upon their elected friends, prospective friends and staffers: baskets of food, bottles of booze, even high-priced tickets to sports events.
That last item is the kind of thing that sent uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff to prison. It also brought the House of Representatives a new set of ethics rules — stern and often complex limits on accepting gifts.
And so every December, the House Ethics Committee sends out its "Holiday Guidance on the Gift Rule," an ethics memo known in Capitol Hill parlance as a pink sheet.
This pink sheet has seven pages of rules ("Generally, Members and supervisors may not accept gifts from their subordinates") and exceptions ("a common-sense exception" for voluntary gifts during the holidays).
Seven pages of rules – and one page with a poem. About congressional ethics rules.
It's the holiday season, so be of good cheer,
For soon there'll be recess and very few here.
So let us remind you, as gifts come your way,
Please check with Ethics so you don't go astray.