House Republicans appear to be seriously undermining an important congressional ethics watchdog, an early act with their new majority, as House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) tries to win over right-wing dissent in the GOP caucus.
McCarthy on Sunday proposed a major undermining of the Office of Congressional Ethics, which has conducted damning investigations of Democrats and Republicans since its creation in 2007. The office could soon investigate the role some lawmakers played in the Jan. 6 riot of at the US Capitol. can investigate fantastic representative George Santos (RN.Y.), whose finances are closely monitored.
In a proposed rule for the next House session, Republicans want to impose an eight-year term on the Bureau’s board — which would immediately force three of the four Democratic board members to resign — and prevent them from taking office. after the first 30 days of the new session of Congress.
Because most hires require the approval of board members, and since the federal government has a notoriously bureaucratic hiring process, the rules would severely limit who the office could hire immediately and prevent them from replacing staff members who leave in the next two years.
“On the first day of a new Congress, Republicans brought ethics, accountability and transparency to the table,” said Aaron Scherb, senior director of legislative affairs at Common Cause, a good-government group. “This shameful attempt to escape ethical rules has already failed and will fail again.”
Scherb is referring to the House GOP rules package from the start of the 2017-2018 session of Congress, which proposed eliminating the Office of Congressional Ethics entirely. Republicans dropped the idea after public outcry, which prompted then-President Donald Trump to oppose the move.
“With everything Congress has to work on, they must make undermining the Independent Ethics Watchdog, however unfairly, their number one act and their priority,” Trump tweeted at the time. “Focus on tax reform, health care, and many other things of far greater importance!”
Good government backers hope they can stir up equal outrage this time, and are happy that McCarthy’s struggle to block 218 votes will give them more time to do so. There will not be a vote on a new rules package until there is a speaker. But supporters fear the GOP’s decision to wield a scalpel rather than a hammer this time could help change slip away from the general public.
“It’s going to be more difficult because this package of rules is a little more subtle than the 2017 package,” said Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist at Public Citizen, a watchdog group. “Conservatives, and especially Kevin McCarthy, really want to emasculate the Office of Congressional Ethics.”
House Democrats, led by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), created the Office of Congressional Ethics in 2007 after winning control of Congress amid a series of lobbying and corruption scandals that rocked the GOP. The office was designed to complement the often ineffective House Ethics Committee while working independently of it.
In the 16 years since, OCE has investigated a number of high-ranking Republicans and Democrats, including the legendary Congressman Charlie Rangel (DN.Y.) and Congressman Chris Collins (RN.Y.), the former House member supporting Trump’s candidacy to the president, leading to resignations, censure and convictions.
Indeed, the bureau’s investigation of Rangel and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) once prompted members of the Congressional Black Caucus to advocates its elimination.
The bipartisan nature of the OCE’s work has led some conservative groups to call on House Republicans to resign.
“The death of the OCE has become a bone to throw for GOP lawmakers who are currently refusing to support Kevin McCarthy for president,” Peter Flaherty, president of the National Law and Policy Center, said Tuesday. “OCE should be strengthened and made more independent, not less. The OCE would be more effective if it had the power to sue, which it currently lacks.”
In his statement, Flaherty noted that OCE recently investigated Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.) for accepting prohibited gifts at the 2021 Met Gala and referred the matter to the House Ethics Committee. A spokesman for Ocasio-Cortez said he was confident the issue would be dropped.
So far, Democrats have done little to raise awareness of the threat to the mandate. Neither Pelosi nor Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.), the top Democrat on the House Ethics Committee, immediately responded to emails seeking comment.
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