Ethics Panel Pressured to Launch PMA Probe

The House ethics committee is facing more public pressure to launch a probe into a lobbying firm under investigation by the FBI and its ties to three powerful Democrats.

Four watchdog groups, Democracy 21, Common Cause, Public Citizen and U.S. PIRG, are urging the ethics panel to investigate activities involving PMA Group and Democratic Reps. John Murtha (Pa.), Peter Visclosky (Ind.) and Jim Moran (Va.), all members of the House defense appropriations subcommittee.

In a letter sent to the ethics committee Wednesday, the groups called for an investigation aimed at determining whether the campaign contributions from PMA, its employees and clients improperly influenced Democratic lawmakers to dole out earmarks in violation of House ethics rules and “whether any other ethics violations may have occurred in their activities related to these earmarks.”

Read more: (Susan Crabtree, “Ethics Panel Pressured to Launch PMA Probe,” The Hill, 4/30/09)