With No Warning, House Republicans Vote to Gut Independent Ethics Office

New York Slimes ^ | 01/02/2017 | Eric Lipton

[E. Pluribus Unum]

WASHINGTON — House Republicans, overriding their top leaders, voted on Monday to significantly curtail the power of an independent ethics office set up in 2008 in the aftermath of corruption scandals that sent three members of Congress to jail.

The move to effectively kill the Office of Congressional Ethics was not made public until late Monday, when Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, announced that the House Republican Conference had approved the change. There was no advance notice or debate on the measure.

The surprising vote came on the eve of the start of a new session of Congress, where emboldened Republicans are ready to push an ambitious agenda on everything from health care to infrastructure, issues that will be the subject of intense lobbying from corporate interests. The House Republicans’ move would take away both power and independence from an investigative body, and give lawmakers more control over internal inquiries.

It also came on the eve of a historic shift in power in Washington, where Republicans control both houses of Congress and where a wealthy businessman with myriad potential conflicts of interest is preparing to move into the White House.

[Gene Eric]

Evidently dysfunctional.

[dsc]

Somebody is owed a warning?

STFU. No leftist should ever have a voice in anything.

[donna]

voted on Monday to significantly curtail the power

They curtailed the workload but let them keep the money?

That's a payoff!!!

[Sequoyah101]

“The House Republicans’ move would take away both power and independence from an investigative body, and give lawmakers more control over internal inquiries.”

Can we hope that they may be a little more ruthless than the board has been?

Is this next one for real or did you add it as satire?

“It also came on the eve of a historic shift in power in Washington, where Republicans control both houses of Congress and where a wealthy businessman with myriad potential conflicts of interest is preparing to move into the White House.”

[JohnBrowdie]

it should have been disbanded. it was a pelosi creation that boner continued — and it was totally out of control.

[SaveFerris]

With regards to your tagline, that is exactly what I have had to exchange. Shocking, but all too real.

There’s a few on this board that have been through it and mentioned it a few times over the years.

It’s a whole new ballgame.

[Vic S]

Since this comes from the NYT, maybe the office isn’t really independent, and the Republicans are doing a preemptive strike?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I don’t falsify fake news. It’s already fake enough. :)

[DouglasKC]

What do you want to bet that it was only used as a weapon against conservatives?

[V K Lee]

Evidently not needed. Who believes in ethics and who among them has found any lately?

Interesting the article was still able to give PE DJT a stab or two before THE END. A shame they didn’t feel the need to suggest the outgoing POTUS was nothing more than a
Pin0cchio

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I’m willing to bet they were already manufacturing charges against Trump.

[HokieMom]

Goodlatte’s tweet: Rules amdt approved by House GOP strengthens Office of Cong Ethics & improves upon due process rights. Does nothing to impede OCE’s work.

[Batman11]

PFL

[JohnBrowdie]

they only had jurisdiction over members of the house of representatives. c’mon, folks. try to keep it together.

[mrsmith]

The House is not in session.
This vote occured only in the Republican Conference, it is part of a Rules package that will be voted on by the whole House.

That said, anything that Pelosi pushed through in 2008 should probably be removed.

[citizen]

Stopped reading when I saw NYTimes.

[CivilWarBrewing]

Bingo. On orders from Trump no doubt. The left has already stated their intent to impeach him, and even BEFORE his first official act as President. Unreal. We’re already seen how 0dungsh*t has purged our military by use of ‘ethics violations’.. SELECTIVELY, of course. Meanwhile, Loretta ‘tarmac’ Lynch STILL has her job.

[Paladin2]

Twitter has replaced the NYT, LOL....

[stylin19a]

Everybody has a bad memory for things that happen prior to today.
Here's how this went back in 2008

Republicans, backed by 18 Democrats, thought they had won a parliamentary vote prior to consideration of the new ethics office, a victory that would have derailed the proposal.

But Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democratic leadership held the vote open for 16 minutes beyond the alloted 15-minute deadline and, in that period, convinced several Democrats to switch their votes.

The final vote on the parliamentary procedure was 207-206. The Democrats who changed their votes were Reps. Sanford Bishop (Ga.), G.K Butterfield (N.C.), Emanuel Cleaver (Mo.) and Bart Stupak (Mich.), according to Democratic and GOP members and aides.

The final vote, which changed House rules in order to implement the OCE, was 229-182. Almost 30 Republicans, fearing that they would be caught on the wrong side of the issue come Election Day, threw their support behind the Democratic plan at the last moment, giving Democratic leaders a solid margin of victory on final passage.