I am sure many of you are as stunned, saddened and angry over the recent revelations that Representative Mark Foley engaged in possibly criminal behavior with minors serving as "pages" in Congress.  This scandal hits close to home for me. In 1993, my daughter Hannah was a page in the Senate. I sent her to Washington and I expected her to be safe and free from harassment. Thousands of other parents have done the same.

This incident raises a number of troubling questions that demand answers from a scandal-ridden Congress that doesn't like to answer questions. This is, after all, a Congress in which we've seen bribery, criminal convictions and former Members sit in jail. The House Ethics Committee has been inactive for the last two years.

And now this. The apparent cover up by House leaders of a Member of Congress who was sexually exploiting children is proof that the House is unable and incapable of policing itself, and that the system of peer review must be changed.

That's why Common Cause is calling on the House of Representatives to return to Washington DC before Election Day on Nov. 7 to establish an outside ethics commission to provide ethics oversight and enforcement of a body that has proven now beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is incapable of policing itself.

We also want House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL), Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (R-NY) and Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) to hold a public hearing and make public all information and all documents in their possession regarding the handling of Foley's sexually explicit e-mails.

We believe this is too serious an issue to wait until after the election. The House must reconvene before Election Day because the public has a right to know where every House Member who is up for re-election stands on their willingness to be held accountable.

You probably know that such a session of Congress would not be unprecedented. As recently as last year, Congress returned to Washington during its Easter Recess to consider the fate of Terri Schiavo.

That's it -- we here at Common Cause are fed up with the delay in renewing the Voting Rights Act.  While most of Congress, including the leadership of both parties in both the House and the Senate, supports renewal, there are a few who seem to want to block renewal entirely.  

Unacceptable.  That's what we think.

If that's what you think, as well, then join Common Cause and other civil rights and public interest groups in petitioning Congress to renew the Voting Rights Act when they return from the July 4th recess.  Go here and sign our petition.

Then, pass it along to friends and family -- the more names we deliver to Congress, the more they will know that the public won't allow them to play political games with the most important civil rights law in our nation's history.

Sign today:  http://www.commoncause.org/VRApetition