The House ethics committee has drafted rules that for the first time would define gay married couples as “spouses” for the purposes of filling out their annual Congressional financial disclosure forms.
Activists on both sides of the gay marriage issue said the reporting requirements, if adopted, would mark the first time Congress has recognized a gay partner as a spouse. Opponents of gay rights said the draft appears to contradict the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which mandates that for any federal regulations, “the word ‘spouse’ refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or wife.”
The draft ethics committee rules were posted this week on both the ethics committee Web site and the Web site of the Clerk of the House, who manages the financial disclosure forms.
But they were removed from both sites after Roll Call inquired about them.
Full story: Draft Congressional Ethics Rules Would Recognize Gay Marriages – Roll Call