Rep. Norm Dicks said Friday that he is confident that he will be exonerated by ethics investigators after a leaked preliminary report listed him as one of seven members of the defense appropriations subcommittee who are under scrutiny for their relationships with a once-powerful lobbying firm.
The House ethics committee and Office of Congressional Ethics are both investigating whether the subcommittee members traded earmarks for campaign contributions with the PMA Group, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
The inquiry comes after PMA had its office raided by the FBI about one year ago. The firm has since disintegrated.
“I can assure you that I have always conducted myself appropriately and in accordance with all applicable House rules and statutes,” said Dicks, who represents the 6th Congressional District, in a written statement.
“I am confident that all of my actions as a member of the House have been appropriate, and I expect that when all the inquiries are concluded, I will be completely exonerated.”
The internal workings of the ethics panel were exposed on the Internet in a breach that Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., chairwoman of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct — also known as the ethics committee — called a case of “cyber-hacking.”
Preliminary inquiries
The Washington Post reported in its online edition Thursday that a document — which is about mostly preliminary inquiries — was disclosed on a publicly accessible computer network and made available to the newspaper by a source familiar with such networks.
The ethics panel announced that it was investigating two California Democrats — Reps. Maxine Waters and Laura Richardson — as its leaders explained that several other lawmakers’ names should not have been revealed and they may have done nothing wrong.
The Tacoma News Tribune said Friday that Dicks, D-Belfair — who represents the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas and a portion of Pierce County — has secured $27 million in earmarks for four PMA clients in the last three years.
The newspaper, citing a Congressional Quarterly MoneyLine analysis,also said that he has received $133,000 in campaign contributions from PMA’s political action committee.
In an interview with the Peninsula Daily News, Dicks’ chief of staff, George Behan, didn’t refute those numbers, but said Friday that the investigation has not shown that his boss has done anything wrong.
“The ethics committee made it clear yesterday [Thursday] that there was no inference of any wrongdoing,” he said.
Behan said the $27 million in earmarks were for Navy projects on the Kitsap Peninsula, but he hadn’t provided examples as of Saturday.
When asked why Dicks should accept campaign contributions from a lobbying firm’s political action committee, Behan said:
“This is a group of individuals who all support national defense.
“Dicks is one of the stronger supporters of national defense. They recognize that.
“You are supported by people who [have] like philosophies.
“He has never done anything that was unethical.”
PMA was found by Paul Magliocchetti, who served as a House staff member in the 1980s.
Behan said Magliocchetti and none of PMA’s staff have ever worked for Dicks; nor does he have a personal or professional relationship with any of them.
Also named in the investigation are John Murtha, D-Pa., defense appropriations subcommittee chairman; Peter Visclosky, D-Ind.; James Morgan Jr., D-Va.; Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio; C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla.; and Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
