Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Ethics Committee said Friday it is forming an investigative panel to determine whether Republican Rep. Ed Whitfield violated congressional rules by allowing his wife to lobby staff members on issues related to her work.
The committee will examine allegations Whitfield improperly used his official position to benefit himself, his wife or her employer, The Humane Society of the United States.
Whitfield, in his 11th term representing western Kentucky, called the allegations politically motivated by opponents of his work to regulate the Tennessee walking horse industry.
Whitfield's wife, Constance Harriman Whitfield, is a lobbyist for the Humane Society Legislative Fund. She worked with her husband on a bill he sponsored to ban a practice that manipulates a walking horse's hooves to produce an exaggerated, high-stepping gait. The practice, known as "soring," is considered abusive by some animal welfare groups.
"The allegation that my wife lobbied my office or my staff to convince me to introduce and pass the legislation is absurd," Whitfield said Friday in a statement. "This is an issue I have followed for many years. I introduced the Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act because in my humble opinion it was the right thing to do."
Whitfield's bill did not come up for a vote in the last Congress, despite support from a range of animal and veterinary groups and more than 300 co-sponsors in the House. Whitfield blamed that outcome on the ethics inquiry, which he said was initiated by groups including the Tennessee-based Performance Show Horse Association and the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration.
The groups could not be reached for comment Friday.
Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Texas, will chair the four-member investigative panel. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., will serve as the top Democrat. No timetable was given for their report.
The independent Office of Congressional Ethics said in a report last year that Whitfield likely violated House rules by allowing his wife to use his congressional office as part of her lobbying activities on the bill and other issues related to animal welfare.
Constance Whitfield repeatedly contacted her husband's staff on behalf of the bill and used his congressional office as a base of operations to support the bill, the report said. Both actions are against House rules.
Wayne Pacelle, president of The Humane Society of the United States, said Whitfield's work on the horse protection bill "was entirely motivated by his long-standing and deeply felt passion for stopping animal cruelty."
The groups who brought the Ethics Committee complaint are "engaged in tormenting horses for profit, and this complaint against the author of the legislation is just one of the many obstacles they've tried to place in its way," Pacelle said.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
