House Republicans have voted to implement significant changes that they say will ensure the independence of the office and committee investigating allegations of congressional misconduct.
The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) targets Republican lawmakers roughly 60% of the time. OCE and the Committee on Ethics consistently investigate more Republicans, even when Democrats are in the majority.
While Democrats maintain OCE is nonpartisan, many Republicans believe it is biased and heavily influenced by left-wing government watchdogs.
Empowered by their new majority, Republicans under Speaker McCarthy are taking action to remedy the perceived injustice.
The Washington Times has more:
House Republicans, seeking to reinforce the traditional nonpartisan functioning of the board, voted to implement small but critical changes in how the OCE and the House internal investigatory panel, the Ethics Committee, operate in the 118th Congress.
Republicans also voted to make one major change. For the first time, outside groups and individuals will be able to file ethics complaints against lawmakers directly to the House Ethics Committee, which is made up of five Republican and five Democratic lawmakers and has the authority to punish members for wrongdoing.
Top House Democrats said the changes would “gut the office of congressional ethics.” Nonpartisan ethics watchdog groups warned that a new rule reimposing term limits for board members could make it harder for the OCE to conduct timely investigations because three longtime Democratic board members will have to step down.
“The concern is that by immediately just saying three people can no longer sit on the board, it stymies possible investigations,” Delaney Marsco, senior legal counsel for ethics at the nonpartisan watchdog group Campaign Legal Center, told The Washington Times. “It's really going to be dependent on how quickly those seats can be filled.”
READ NEXT: Foreign Leader Announces Abrupt Resignation >>
Ethics committee? This committee is and always has been a joke! Rules need to be changed also for the House. How can Schiff be aloud to lie on the House floor for years ( about having proof of collusion between President Trump and Putin) and nothing happens to him? Ethics in government…not even close!
BUT will they be Enforced?? Dems WONT
What ethics?
Too many decisions are based upon situational ethics, not ethics true ethics.