The House GOP majority is poised to dismantle the Office of Congressional Ethics after it settles on a far right leader.
If the OCE were to open such investigations,noted, “it would ultimately result in public reports with potentially embarrassing conclusions for Republicans.”It'll be even worse if Keven McCarthy is successful in his attempt to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics.CLC explained what would happen if House Republicans’ plan to hamper the OCE is carried out:
The proposed rules package severely curtails the ability of OCE to do the job it exists to do. First, Sec. 4 of the proposed rule forces three of the four Democrats who sit on the eight-member board to vacate their positions immediately because they would be serving beyond the newly imposed eight-year term limit. Filling these vacancies cannot be done quickly and leaving these posts empty would hamstring OCE’s ability to efficiently conduct investigations and publish reports.
Second, Sec. 4 would require OCE to hire its staff for the 118th Congress within 30 days of the adoption of the rule. This provision essentially limits any hiring for the office, including investigative staffers, to an impossibly brief period that would make it extremely difficult to rigorously assess candidates for these highstakes jobs.
“Together these changes severely weaken OCE to the point where the office would struggle to perform its core function,” CLC continued. “Past attempts to gut OCE have not only been detrimental to the public’s trust in Congress, but those moves have also been politically damaging and met with widespread public backlash. There is no reason to think this time will be any different.
CREW, meanwhile, argued that “we shouldn’t just settle for not gutting the Office of Congressional Ethics” and urged Congress to pass Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act.
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