NewsChannel 5.com - Nashville, Tennessee - Bill Would Merge Ethics Commission

Bill Would Merge Ethics Commission

(AP) NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Lawmakers have agreed to merge the Tennessee Ethics Commission and Registry of Election Finance into one entity.

It will be called the Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance and will be governed by a board of directors composed of six members of the registry and six members of the commission, which is scheduled to terminate at the end of this month.

The commission was the centerpiece of ethics reforms passed in the aftermath of the FBI's Tennessee Waltz corruption sting in 2005 that led to the convictions of nine state and local officials and a lobbyist.

Critics of the new measure said the state is doing away with the commission, but House Speaker Kent Williams said he has been assured it will be the same, "just rolled into one department."

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