Well..at least one winner in all the House Speaker drama! It appears that the swamp just just a lot more swampy~
"I think it's fantastic," Republican Rep. George Santos of New York said of the rules package, which passed by a 220-213 margin, in a brief interview with Insider at the Capitol on Monday.
The changes come just days after Santos — who was revealed to have lied about much of his background, is under investigation in multiple countries, and faces at least two OCE complaints related to his financial disclosures — was sworn into Congress.
"The proposed rules package severely curtails the ability of OCE to do the job it exists to do," a constellation of good-government groups wrote in a letter published on January 4.
The Office of Congressional Ethics, first established in 2008, is a quasi-independent body tasked with investigating allegations of misconduct against members of Congress. It then makes a determination as to whether those allegations are worth investigating further, at which point it makes a referral to the House Ethics Committee, which is evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats.
But the rules package for the 118th Congress, put forward by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, re-imposes eight-year term limits for the OCE's board members, made up of former members of Congress, that were originally laid out when the office was established in 2008 and later extended in subsequent congresses.
The practical effect of that will be the immediate removal of three of four Democratic-appointed board members: former Reps. Mike Barnes, Belinda Pinckney, and Karan English. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries can appoint their replacements, but that could take months.
Furthermore, the rules prevent the office from hiring new staff after one month and require four board members to sign off on any staffing decision. That means the office — which currently has just one investigative counsel on staff and is actively seeking to hire two more — likely won't have enough time to hire new staff, and will not be able to fill any vacancies that might occur in the next two years.
Taken together, the rules will make it extraordinarily difficult for the body — which otherwise operates independently of Congress and has generally been more effective at investigating wrong-doing than self-policing Ethics Committee in the House or Senate — will not have the necessary resources it needs to carry out its work.
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- House Republicans voted on Monday to hobble the Office of Congressional Ethics.
- The body will now likely be limited in its ability to carry out investigations due to staffing shortages.
- George Santos, facing multiple investigations and ethics complaints, called the changes "fantastic."
"I think it's fantastic," Republican Rep. George Santos of New York said of the rules package, which passed by a 220-213 margin, in a brief interview with Insider at the Capitol on Monday.
The changes come just days after Santos — who was revealed to have lied about much of his background, is under investigation in multiple countries, and faces at least two OCE complaints related to his financial disclosures — was sworn into Congress.
"The proposed rules package severely curtails the ability of OCE to do the job it exists to do," a constellation of good-government groups wrote in a letter published on January 4.
The Office of Congressional Ethics, first established in 2008, is a quasi-independent body tasked with investigating allegations of misconduct against members of Congress. It then makes a determination as to whether those allegations are worth investigating further, at which point it makes a referral to the House Ethics Committee, which is evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats.
But the rules package for the 118th Congress, put forward by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, re-imposes eight-year term limits for the OCE's board members, made up of former members of Congress, that were originally laid out when the office was established in 2008 and later extended in subsequent congresses.
The practical effect of that will be the immediate removal of three of four Democratic-appointed board members: former Reps. Mike Barnes, Belinda Pinckney, and Karan English. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries can appoint their replacements, but that could take months.
Furthermore, the rules prevent the office from hiring new staff after one month and require four board members to sign off on any staffing decision. That means the office — which currently has just one investigative counsel on staff and is actively seeking to hire two more — likely won't have enough time to hire new staff, and will not be able to fill any vacancies that might occur in the next two years.
Taken together, the rules will make it extraordinarily difficult for the body — which otherwise operates independently of Congress and has generally been more effective at investigating wrong-doing than self-policing Ethics Committee in the House or Senate — will not have the necessary resources it needs to carry out its work.
