The New GOP Majority’s First Move Could Be To Gut A Key Ethics Watchdog

House Republicans appear poised to seriously undermine a major congressional ethics watchdog as one of the first acts with their new majority, as House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) seeks to win over right-wing dissidents within the GOP conference.

McCarthy on Sunday proposed severely weakening the Office of Congressional Ethics, which has conducted damning investigations into Democrats and Republicans alike since its creation in 2007. The office could soon probe the role some lawmakers played in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and may investigate fantasist Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), whose finances are under close examination.

Under a proposal setting up the rules for the next session of the House, Republicans want to mandate eight-year term limits for the office’s governing board ― which would immediately force out three of the board’s four Democratic members ― and bar it from making any hires after the first 30 days of the new congressional session.

Since most hires require approval of the board members, and since the federal government has a notoriously bureaucratic hiring process, the rules would sharply limit whom the office could hire immediately, and effectively bar them from replacing staff members who leave over the next two years.

“On the very first day of a new Congress, Republicans have put ethics, accountability, and transparency on the chopping block,” said Aaron Scherb, the senior director of legislative affairs at Common Cause, a good-government group. “This disgraceful attempt to get rid of ethics rules has failed before and it will fail again.”

Scherb is referring to the House GOP’s rules package from the start of the 2017-2018 congressional session, which proposed eliminating the Office of Congressional Ethics altogether. Republicans abandoned the idea after public outcry, which led then-President Donald Trump to oppose the move.

“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,” Trump wrote on Twitter at the time. “Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance!”

Good-government advocates are hopeful they can stir up equal outrage this time around, and are happy that McCarthy’s struggles to lock down 218 votes may give them more time to do so. There won’t be a vote on a new rules package until after there’s a speaker in place. But advocates fear the GOP’s decision to wield a scalpel this time, rather than a hammer, may help the change escape widespread public notice.

“It’s going to be more difficult since this rules package is a little more subtle than the one in 2017,” said Craig Holman, the government affairs lobbyist at Public Citizen, a watchdog group. “Conservatives, and Kevin McCarthy in particular, really do want to emasculate the Office of Congressional Ethics.”

House Democrats, led by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), created the Office of Congressional Ethics in 2007 after winning control of Congress on the back of a series of lobbying and corruption scandals that damaged the GOP. The office was designed to complement the often ineffective House ethics committee while working independently from it.

In the 16 years since, OCE has investigated a slew of high-profile Republicans and Democrats ― including legendary Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), the first member of the House to endorse Trump’s run for president ― leading to resignations, censures and convictions.

In fact, the office’s investigations of Rangel and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) once led members of the Congressional Black Caucus to argue for its elimination.

The bipartisan nature of OCE’s work has led some conservative groups to urge House Republicans to leave the office alone.

“OCE’s demise has become a bone to throw to the GOP backbenchers who are currently refusing to support Kevin McCarthy for Speaker,” Peter Flaherty, the chairman of the conservative National Legal and Policy Center, said in a statement on Tuesday. “OCE should be strengthened and made more independent, not less. OCE would be more effective if it had subpoena power, which it currently lacks.”

In his statement, Flaherty noted that OCE recently investigated Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) for accepting prohibited gifts at the 2021 Met Gala, and referred the matter to the House ethics committee. A spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez has said they are confident the matter will be dismissed.

So far, Democrats have done little to raise awareness of the threat to the office. Neither Pelosi nor Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.), the top Democrat on the House ethics committee, immediately responded to emails seeking comment.