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House Republicans drop rule change gutting ethics watchdog House Republicans drop rule change gutting ethics watchdog
(35 minutes later)
House Republicans have withdrawn a proposal to gut a congressional ethics watchdog following criticism from Donald Trump. House Republicans were forced into a humiliating climbdown on Tuesday after Donald Trump tweeted criticism of their move to gut an independent congressional ethics watchdog.
In a reversal, the House GOP decided on Tuesday to strip the provision from a package of rule changes that lawmakers will vote on later in the day. Members ditched their plan to severely weaken the independent Office of Congressional Ethics at an emergency meeting just before the start of a new legislative session on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Said Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma: “People didn’t want this story on opening day.” The original rule change, carried out without warning and behind closed doors, had provoked a fierce backlash from Democrats and government watchdogs when first announced on Monday night.
House Republicans had voted Monday night to change the rules. But it was flexing of muscles by the president-elect that appeared to force Republicans to cave in. “With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it may be, their number one act and priority,” he tweeted. “Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance!”
GOP leaders held an emergency conference meeting on Tuesday to discuss the party’s vote on Monday night to put the independent Office of Congressional Ethics under oversight of the House Ethics Committee. Trump added the hashtag #DTS, for his campaign slogan “drain the swamp”.
The decision came after Trump condemned House Republicans for voting to severely weaken the watchdog, the latest sign of his willingness to rebuke his own party. Trump’s incoming press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters: “He says their focus should be on tax reform and healthcare. It’s not a question of strengthening or weakening, it’s a question of priorities.”
Republicans sparked an outcry on Monday when they agreed behind closed doors to give lawmakers themselves ultimate control over the OCE, the independent body created in 2008 to investigate allegations of misconduct. At the subsequent emergency meeting, House majority leader Kevin McCarthy of California, who had opposed the timing of the decision, reportedly offered a motion to restore the current OCE rules which was accepted by members.
Trump tweeted on Tuesday morning: “With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it may be, their number one act and priority. Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance!” Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma said: “People didn’t want this story on opening day.”
He added the hashtag #DTS, for his campaign slogan “drain the swamp”. The reversal marked a public relations disaster for the party and handed Trump a victory in what may prove a battle of wills over the next four years.
The OCE was created after several bribery and corruption scandals that resulted in members going to prison. It is not the first time that Trump, a billionaire businessman often described as an outsider who mounted a “hostile takeover” of the Republican party, has been at odds with its rank and file. His intervention came on the day that the 115th Congress convened with Republicans in control of both chambers for the first time in a decade.
More details soon ... But on the OCE issue he did appear aligned with McCarthy and Speaker Paul Ryan, who had both urged their colleagues during the closed-door meeting to vote against the idea, arguing that it should be done later and on a bipartisan basis.
Both men then appeared to defend the move on Tuesday morning, only for it to collapse at the emergency meeting, fuelling a sense of confusion and chaos before Trump is even inaugurated.
The OCE was conceived in 2008 to investigate allegations of misconduct after several bribery and corruption scandals that resulted in members going to prison.