Source: The Washington Post / Getty
One day after media reports that House Republicans had voted privately to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics, GOP lawmakers abruptly reversed themselves on Tuesday (January 3rd) after a public outcry from constituents who jammed congressional phone lines, and a tweet from President-elect Donald Trump questioning making the ethics office move the first act of the new Congress, which convened for its first day yesterday.
Republican leaders called an emergency meeting Tuesday and voted without opposition to undo the change, which would have put the currently independent ethics office under lawmakers’ control. With news of the attempted change dominating the headlines yesterday morning, Trump tweeted,
“With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it may be, their number one act and priority,”
A criticism that focused more on the timing of the GOP effort than its substance. The Office of Congressional Ethics was created in 2008 after several bribery and corruption cases in the House.
