UPDATE: Republicans removed this provision from the rules legislation. It’s not clear if they’ve dropped it forever or just because it looked bad to do it on the first day of the new session.
So Congressional Republicans had a private meeting last night in which they voted overwhelmingly to launch what you might call an anti-ethics bill. They[re attaching a sneaky little amendment onto a bigger bill that will strip away much of the power of the independent committee overseeing congressional ethics. The vote is scheduled to take place today.
Politico explains:
In one of their first moves of the new Congress, House Republicans have voted to gut their own independent ethics watchdog — a huge blow to cheerleaders of congressional oversight and one that dismantles major reforms adopted after the Jack Abramoff scandal.
Despite a warning from Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), House Republicans on Monday adopted a proposal by Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) to put the Office of Congressional Ethics under the jurisdiction of the House Ethics Committee.
The office currently has free rein, enabling investigators to pursue allegations and then recommend further action to the House Ethics Committee as they see fit.
Now, the office would be under the thumb of lawmakers themselves. The proposal also appears to limit the scope of the office’s work by barring them from consider anonymous tips against lawmakers. And it would stop the office from disclosing the findings of some of their investigations, as they currently do after the recommendations go to House Ethics.
Who watches the watchdog? In this case, the people being watched by the watchdog watch the watchdog. No conflict of interest there!
As I mentioned, the House is scheduled to vote on the proposal TODAY. So hop to it! You can easily find the name and contact info of your congressional representative here.
The dude behind this is the lovely Bob Goodlatte (R, VA), who, it turns out, is neither good nor a latte. Even if you’re not in his district, you might want to give his DC office a call at (202) 225-5431. If you can’t get through, you can find numbers for his local offices at the bottom of his official website. There’s an email form there as well, though it’s restricted to those who live in his district. He’s also on Twitter.
And while you’re feeling civic-minded, why not thank Nancy Pelosi for speaking out against the proposal? Call her at (202) 225-4965 or (415) 556-4862, or contact her through her website. If you live outside her district and aren’t going to call, hit her up on Facebook or Twitter.
For handy advice on what to say when you call a congressperson’s office, see this post of mine from last week.
… saw that….
They HAVE to do this, because… y’know, th’ liberals
And now Trump is all, like, “OMG, you guys, that was way too obvious!”
This makes complete sense. Just like “trickle-down” economics, in order to increase tax revenue, you lower taxes. So if you want more ethical behaviour from congress you must gut the ethics watchdog.
This is “trickle-down ethics”.
The Representatives — all of ’em — are getting sworn in at noon today, so their offices will probably be too busy to talk to you in person.
I just spoke to my Representative’s local office and they didn’t know if he was at the meeting last night.
See, I assumed that Republicans would wait until Trump decreased in popularity, and in an effort to get their boy Pence in, would use Trump’s ethic’s violations to get him out of office (of course they would wait a little over 2 years for this, so Pence could also run for two full presidential terms)
I guess this might be the first step in this – stop the watchdog from investigating – so that they can control him, until they don’t need him anymore.
Also, let’s face it, most are lying douche-canoes, so I’m sure they want their own actions for not be looked at closely.
My hashtag for 2016 was #everythingisawful2016, I have already upgraded it to #everythingishorrible2017.
This from the man who bragged about his wealth and power entitling him to sexually abuse women….
But…but…Hillary’s emails!!!!
@Dan Hoan I think they are just counting on Pence running things from behind the scenes because Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing and will lean heavily on Pence as a more experienced politician.
Besides, under Trump they can do just about whatever they want and it will be blamed on Trump; most of the American public is not well-educated on the purview of congress vs the president, etc. he’s a disposable figurehead that they can hide behind for the next four years – nobody is going to want to re-elect him after they actually see him in action anyway, so they don’t have to worry about making things any worse for the republican party’s chances next election. They’re trying to minimize oversight so they can take full advantage of him while they have him.
Looks like the House Republicans decided not to do it. For now, at least.
Yes, they’ve dropped it for now…although Trump did indicate he thinks the Ethics Committee is “unfair.”
I hope the thousands of people who jammed Congressional phone lines are giving themselves a pat on the back today. They deserve it.
Let’s keep holding their feet to the fire.
@WWTH
http://i.imgur.com/VNHIV1M.jpg
I’m making a note of this for future reference – Donny Cheeto didn’t do anything to fight this; all he did was jump on the bandwagon, once it was clear that the power grab was already doomed.
Actually, he didn’t even do that – it’s clear that he’s opposed to the OCE, even in the tweets where he called out the Republicans’ attempt. All he essentially said was “Not now!”, not “Never!”
And he’s also not clever enough to plot something like this – set up a bald-faced power grab, then oppose it to show how he’s ‘draining the swamp’. All it shows is that he’s opportunistic and has the press well-trained to swallow whatever he tells them.
@kupo awesome 😀
Kupo, bwa ha ha ha!
Kellyanne Conway downplays Republicans gutting the Office of Congressional Ethics: “I don’t want people to think that ethics is gone”
http://www.salon.com/2017/01/03/kellyanne-conway-downplays-republicans-gutting-the-office-of-congressional-ethics-i-dont-want-people-to-think-that-ethics-is-gone/
“I don’t want people to notice that ethics is[sic] gone”
FIFY, Kellyanne. 😛
@kupo
Oh that is beautiful.
@Kat
This is getting dumber and dumber. Are they trying to pull a “it’s not blatantly unethical if you do it in the open” like with corruption ?
@Sinkable John
Ya got me.
I’ve never known an American president to party openly with a gangster. It seems that every day the man finds new ways to shock me.
Trump spokesman says corruption is legal if you do it in the open
As long as you are not sneaky, everything is fine, Sean Spicer says.
Beginning to sense a theme here…
@Scildfreja
They figure they got through the election like that, so they might as well continue ?
It’s unfathomable how broken the American system will be after they’re done with it.
On the plus side, in this way my relationship with Donald stays fresh.
A surprise every day!
The US Republican Party: getting “swampier” all the time.
@peevee to Trump, the very notion of ethics applying to him is “unfair”
@ kat. Can’t say I’m shocked. Disgusted, yes. But “shocked” left the station a long time ago.
The dumpster thinks ETHICS is unfair
oops, ninja’d by Conan