Posted on 01/03/2017 5:19:16 AM PST by huldah1776
The House Republican Conference voted Monday night to approve a change to House rules to weaken the independence of the Office of Congressional Ethics and place it under the jurisdiction of the House Ethics Committee — a panel controlled by party leaders.
It will be part of a broader House Rules package voted on by the full body on Tuesday, after the 115th Congress officially convenes and the House elects a speaker.
It's a move that is already causing a backlash among Democrats, who say it's hypocritical given that President-elect Donald Trump was elected vowing to "drain the swamp" in Washington.
The Office of Congressional Ethics was established in 2008 under House Democrats, in response to the era of lobbying scandals made notable by Jack Abramoff, the former lobbyist who went to prison on corruption charges.
It is the first independent body to have an oversight role in House ethics. There is no Senate counterpart. The OCE independently reviews allegations of misconduct against House members and staff, and if deemed appropriate refers them to the House Ethics Committee for review. The OCE cannot independently punish lawmakers for any ethics violations.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
FYI, the old Ethics Committee has been likened to a star chamber, in which anonymous charges were allowed and were sometimes made. Good Riddance. Smart move considering the ferocity of the opposition we´re about to face.
Leadership objected, probably because of the optics of it. Screw optics.
The OCE has had an eight person Board of Directors: four Democrats and four Republicans.
Four partisan Democrats, 3 RINOs and a beltway careerist “conservative”.
Now Bibi Netanyahu is facing charges in Israel. We all know that anyone successful in business or politics cultivates friendships and does deals, the details of which can easily be twisted to appear criminal. Yet, on the Democrat side, Harry Reid is guilty of any number of transactional crimes, Rahm Emanuel, Barbara Boxer, Jon Corzine, all are tainted by illegal, unethical activities, and yet they are still free and wealthy. The judicial process in our country has become too corrupt to trust.
This ethics office is about as corrupt as it gets. Typical of leftist government committees, offices and initiatives they are given names that suggest fairness and integrity but are only used to to silence dissenting politics. That being said this was not the time to undertake this.
The words Congressional and Ethics should not be used together.
Donny Ain’t Happy Either.
I remember that crud. I’m glad I started the thread because I always get the truth here. Why is Ryan against the disbanding?
Thank you! Have to remember to do some research after I read lib crud. It was early though, so I’ll forgive myself.
I suspect if you take a close look at what they did, it would likely show this committee nipping at Republicans and felicitating Democrats.
Then let's take a close look at what they did. Here's their website with all their investigations: Link
A lot of Democrats on that list.
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