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Outcry after Republicans vote to dismantle independent ethics body Outcry after Republicans vote to dismantle independent ethics body
(about 1 hour later)
House Republicans have voted to eviscerate the Office of Congressional Ethics, the independent body created in 2008 to investigate allegations of misconduct by US lawmakers after several bribery and corruption scandals sent members to prison. House Republicans have gutted an independent ethic watchdog, putting it under their own control, in a secret ballot hours before the new Congress convened for the first time.
The ethics change, which prompted an outcry from Democrats and government watchdog groups, is part of a rules package that the full House will vote on Tuesday. The package also includes a means for Republican leaders to punish lawmakers if there is a repeat of the Democratic sit-in last summer over gun control. The unheralded vote severely weakens the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), which was set up after a lobbying scandal in 2008 to investigate corruption allegations against members of Congress. The move, led by the head of the House judiciary committee, defied the Republican congressional leadership and was reportedly supported by several legislators currently under OCE scrutiny.
Under the ethics change pushed by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, the non-partisan Office of Congressional Ethics would fall under the control of the House Ethics Committee, which is run by lawmakers. It would be known as the Office of Congressional Complaint Review, and the rule change would require that “any matter that may involve a violation of criminal law must be referred to the Committee on Ethics for potential referral to law enforcement agencies after an affirmative vote by the members,” according to Goodlatte’s office. The amendment was voted through by the House Republican conference over the New Year’s holiday, with no prior notice or debate and inserted in a broad rules package the House will vote for on Tuesday, It turns the formerly independent OCE into the Office of Congressional Complaint Review, a subordinate body to the House Ethics Committee, which is currently run by the Republican majority and has a long history of overlooking charges of malfeasance by lawmakers. The new body will not be able receive anonymous tips from members of Congress and it will not be able to make its findings public.
Lawmakers would have the final say under the change. House Republicans voted 119-74 for the Goodlatte measure. The vote comes at a time when the Republicans control all three branches of government and seeking to remove some of the residual constraints on their powers. Its rules package on Tuesday, for example, will limit the ability of the Democratic minority of blocking legislation, like the repeal of Obama’s Affordable Care Act, by staging a filibuster.
“The amendment builds upon and strengthens the existing Office of Congressional Ethics by maintaining its primary area of focus of accepting and reviewing complaints from the public and referring them, if appropriate, to the Committee on Ethics,” the congressman said in a statement. It also comes at a time when President-elect Trump is attempting to fend off scrutiny over multiple conflicts of interests questions arising from his bid to keep his business empire in his family’s hands even after he takes office on 20 January.
Democrats, led by minority leader Nancy Pelosi, reacted angrily. The House Republican vote triggered a wave of outrage from Democrats and government ethics specialists.
“Republicans claim they want to ‘drain the swamp,’ but the night before the new Congress gets sworn in, the House GOP has eliminated the only independent ethics oversight of their actions,” the California lawmaker said in a statement. “Evidently, ethics are the first casualty of the new Republican Congress.” “Undermining the independence of the House’s Office of Congressional Ethics would create a serious risk to members of Congress, who rely on OCE for fair, nonpartisan investigations, and to the American people, who expect their representatives to meet their legal and ethical obligations,” Norman Eisen and Richard Painter, ethics counsels to Barack Obama and George W Bush respectively, argued in a joint statement.
Chris Carson, president of the League of Women Voters, said Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., should be ashamed of himself and his leadership team. “If the 115th Congress begins with rules amendments undermining OCE, it is setting itself up to be dogged by scandals and ethics issues for years and is returning the House to dark days when ethics violations were rampant and far too often tolerated.”
“We all know the so-called House Ethics Committee is worthless for anything other than a whitewash — sweeping corruption under the rug. That’s why the independent Office of Congressional Ethics has been so important. The OCE works to stop corruption and that’s why Speaker Ryan is cutting its authority. Speaker Ryan is giving a green light to congressional corruption.” The House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, said: “Republicans claim they want to ‘drain the swamp,’ but the night before the new Congress gets sworn in, the House GOP has eliminated the only independent ethics oversight of their actions,” Pelosi said in a statement. “Evidently, ethics are the first casualty of the new Republican Congress.”
The OCE was created in March 2008 after the cases of former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, a Republican, a California Republican, who served more than seven years in prison on bribery and other charges; as well as cases of former Rep. Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican, who was charged in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and pleaded guilty to corruption charges and former Rep. William Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat, convicted on corruption in a separate case. Goodlatte defended the vote
“The amendment builds upon and strengthens the existing Office of Congressional Ethics by maintaining its primary area of focus of accepting and reviewing complaints from the public and referring them, if appropriate, to the Committee on Ethics,” the judiciary committee chairman said in a statement.
Goodlatte did not explain how the OCE had been strengthened by being stripped of its independence and stopped from making public statements.
The OCE was set up in 2008 after a string of corruption scandals, involving two Republican politicians and a Democrat. Former congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham, a California Republican served more than seven years in prison on bribery and other charges.
Ohio Republican congressman, Bob Ney, pleaded to corruption charges and a Louisiana Democrat and former congressman, William Jefferson was convicted on corruption in a separate case.