House Republicans seem poised to seriously undermine the ethics of the main congressional watchdog as one of the first actions with the new majority, as House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) seeks to win over right-wing dissidents at the GOP conference.
McCarthy has proposed a strong weakening of the Office of Congressional Ethics, which has been conducting damning investigations to Democrats and Republicans alike since it was created in 2007. The office may soon probe the role some legislators played in the January 6 insurrection in the US Capitol, and may investigate Fantasy Rep. George Santos (RN.Y.), whose finances are being examined.
In a proposal to set up rules for the next session of the House of Representatives, Republicans want to impose an eight-year term limit on the governing council’s office – which would immediately force out three of the four members of the Democratic House – and prevent them from hiring. after the first 30 days of a new congressional session.
Because most hires require approval from board members, and because the federal government has a notoriously bureaucratic hiring process, the rule would limit who the office can hire directly, effectively barring them from replacing departing staff members for the next two years.
“On the first day of the new Congress, Republicans have put ethics, accountability, and transparency on the chopping block,” said Aaron Scherb, senior director of legislative affairs at Common Cause, a good government group. “This callous attempt to circumvent the rules of ethics has failed before and will fail again.”
Scherb was referring to the House GOP’s package of rules from the start of the 2017-2018 congressional session, which proposed eliminating the Office of Congressional Ethics entirely. Republicans abandoned the idea after a public outcry, which led then-President Donald Trump to oppose the move.
“With all that Congress has to do, should they make the weakness of the Independent Ethics Watch, as unfair as it is, their number one action and priority,” Trump wrote on Twitter at the time. “Focus on tax reform, health care and other important things!”
Good government advocates are hoping to stoke the same anger this time around, and are happy that McCarthy’s struggle to lock down 218 votes could give them more time to do so. There will be no vote on the new rules package until after the speaker is in place. But supporters fear the GOP’s decision to use the scalpel this time, rather than the hammer, could help the change escape public notice.
“It’s going to be more difficult because this package of rules is more nuanced than what we had in 2017,” said Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist at Public Citizen, a watchdog group. “Conservatives, and Kevin McCarthy in particular, really want to destroy the Office of Congressional Ethics.”
House Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), created the Office of Congressional Ethics in 2007 after winning control of Congress on the back of a series of lobbying and corruption scandals that damaged the GOP. The office is designed to complement the House ethics committee which is often ineffective when operating independently.
In the past 16 years, OCE has investigated several prominent Republicans and Democrats — including Rep. Charlie Rangel (DN.Y.) and Rep. Chris Collins (RN.Y.), the first members of the House of Representatives to endorse Trump for president — leading to their resignations , censures and beliefs.
In fact, the investigation of the office of Rangel and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) once led members of the Congressional Black Caucus to argue for elimination.
The bipartisan nature of the OCE’s work has led some conservative groups to urge House Republicans to leave the office alone.
“The death of OCE has been a bone of contention for GOP backbenchers who are now refusing to support Kevin McCarthy for Speaker,” Peter Flaherty, chairman of the conservative National Law and Policy Center, said in a statement Tuesday. “OCE should be strengthened and made more independent, not less. The OCE would be more effective if it had subpoena powers, which it currently does not have.
In the statement, Flaherty noted that the OCE recently investigated Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.) for accepting a prohibited gift at the 2021 Met Gala, and referred the matter to the House ethics committee. A spokeswoman for Ocasio-Cortez said she was confident the matter would be dismissed.
So far, Democrats have done little to raise awareness of the threat to office. Pelosi or Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.), the top Democrat on the House ethics committee, immediately responded to an email seeking comment.