UPDATE: As of January 3, due to overwhelming public outcry and having their phone lines flooded, House Republicans backed off their plan to dismantle the Office of Congressional Ethics. 

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Now that Republicans have full control of Washington, it seems they suddenly no longer care about ethics. On the eve of the new Congress being sworn in, Republicans opted to gut their own ethics oversight office.

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Acording to Politico, “Monday’s effort was led, in part, by lawmakers who have come under investigation in recent years.”

House Republicans on Monday adopted a proposal by Bob Goodlatte a Republican of Virgina to put the Office of Congressional Ethics under the jurisdiction of the House Ethics Committee – essentially gutting its independence.

Up until now the Office of Congressional Ethics has been independent of committee oversight which has enabled investigators to pursue potential ethics violations and recommend further action to the House Ethics Committee if they feel further action to be warranted.

Republicans want to police themselves

But now that Republicans have effectively neutered the Office of Congressional Ethics, the office will be under the control of lawmakers themselves. And further, the Republican proposed change would also effectively limit the overall scope of the office’s work by preventing them from reviewing anonymous tips against lawmakers.

The Politico piece continued, “And it would stop the office from disclosing the findings of some of their investigations, as they currently do after the recommendations go to House Ethics.”

Republicans designate the swamp protected land

Of course Donald Trump ran on the promise of “draining the swamp” but since winning the election he has filled his government with a laundry list of millionaire and billionaires, hawkish generals and radical conservative insiders. And now Republicans seem to be making their first priority to protect the swamp by gutting the infrastructure that is meant to be the watchdog.

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Evidently, ethics are the first casualty of the new Republican Congress

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement, “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. Evidently, ethics are the first casualty of the new Republican Congress.”

The Office of Congressional Ethics was created in the wake of Abramoff scandal

The Office of Congressional Ethics was created by Democrats in March 2008 in the wake of the Abramoff scandal – where the a Republican lobbyist plead guilty to conspiring to bribe public officials. According to Politico, “Jack Abramoff and his clients had used campaign donations and favors to sway members, including former Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), who served 30 months in prison, and a number of staffers.”

The OCE was created to serve as an outside organization that could take on greater oversight of congress members.

Watchdog groups sound the alarm

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said, “Undermining the independence of the House’s Office of Congressional Ethics would create a serious risk to members of Congress. 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.”
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