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A Center for Public Integrity study reveals that "more than half of the nation's state legislatures have no independent oversight of elected legislators' ethical conduct." One of the major findings is that only 23 states have independent commissions that investigate or enforce violations of ethical conduct violations. Some lawmakers have used the budget writing process to 'punish' their ethics commission, the Center finds. The vast majority of the existing commissions fail to initiate any large investigations because they lack power and financial support. The report includes nationwide overview and state-by-state breakdowns, comparing the state commissions' budgets, significance of findings and actual enforcement power.