House
Republicans drop rule change gutting ethics watchdog
Following
critical tweets by Donald Trump, House Republicans drop plans to
remove the independence of the Office of Congressional Ethics
David Smith and
Lauren Gambino in Washington
Tuesday 3 January
2017 17.32 GMT
House Republicans
were forced into a humiliating climbdown on Tuesday after Donald
Trump tweeted criticism of their move to gut an independent
congressional ethics watchdog.
Members ditched
their plan to severely weaken the independent Office of Congressional
Ethics (OCE) at an emergency meeting just before the start of a new
legislative session on Capitol Hill in Washington.
The original rule
change, carried out without warning and behind closed doors, had
provoked a fierce backlash from Democrats and transparency activists
when first announced on Monday night.
But it was flexing
of muscles by the president-elect that appeared to force Republicans
to cave in. “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,” he tweeted
on Tuesday morning. “Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many
other things of far greater importance!”
Trump added the
hashtag #DTS, for his campaign slogan “drain the swamp”.
His team confirmed
it was the timing, not the reform itself, that had irked the
president-elect. His incoming press secretary, Sean Spicer, told
reporters: “He says their focus should be on tax reform and
healthcare. It’s not a question of strengthening or weakening, it’s
a question of priorities.”
Even before Trump’s
tweet, many House Republicans, including top leaders, opposed the
measure and worried about its ramifications, the Associated Press
reported. In addition, members of Congress were inundated with calls
and complaints from the public, which may have played a part.
At the subsequent
emergency meeting, House majority leader Kevin McCarthy of
California, who had opposed the timing of the decision, reportedly
offered a motion to restore the current OCE rules which was accepted
by members. The House will instead study changes to the office ahead
of a deadline in August.
Representative Tom
Cole of Oklahoma, a Republican, said: “People didn’t want this
story on opening day.”
Later McCarthy,
walking through the Capitol building with an ice cream, was
questioned about the climbdown. “I just thought when you look at
the taskforce about the reforms that are needed, it’s better to do
it bipartisan,” he said. “It was with unanimous consent.”
He denied that
Trump’s tweets had played a part, saying: “No, no, no. Last night
these are things I told people. From a standpoint, it’s better if
people see the process. I just think it’s better that full
bipartisan work on it together.”
Asked if the
reversal had been embarrassing for the party, McCarthy told the
Guardian: “No reversal on my part. Same position I had the night
before.”
But Representative
Steve King of Iowa, who supported the measure and indeed would prefer
to scrap the OCE altogether, insisted that Trump’s intervention had
been crucial. “When President-elect Trump sent out his tweet, that
gave license for the press and everybody else to pile on,” he said.
The abrupt reversal
was welcomed by Democrats – but with a note of scepticism. House
minority leader Nancy Pelosi said: “House Republicans showed their
true colours last night, and reversing their plans to destroy the
Office of Congressional Ethics will not obscure their clear contempt
for ethics in the people’s house.
“Once again, the
American people have seen the toxic dysfunction of a Republican House
that will do anything to further their special interest agenda,
thwart transparency and undermine the public trust.”
Government
accountability groups also expressed caution. Noah Bookbinder,
executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in
Washington, said: “The Office of Congressional Ethics is the only
independent check on the House of Representatives. Without it we
would return to a Congress awash in scandal.
The U-turn marked a
public relations disaster for the party on a day when it hoped to hit
the ground running with an ambitious agenda that includes dismantling
Barack Obama’s healthcare policy. Republican senator Mike Enzi
introduced a resolution allowing for the repeal of Obamacare on
Tuesday, his office said in a statement.
The ethics office
U-turn handed Trump a victory in what may prove a battle of wills
over the next four years.
It is not the first
time that Trump, a billionaire businessman often described as an
outsider who mounted a “hostile takeover” of the Republican
party, has been at odds with its rank and file. His intervention came
on the day that the 115th Congress convened, with Republicans in
control of both chambers, hoping that the incoming president will
prove willing to sign long-planned bills into law.
But on the OCE
issue, Trump did appear aligned with McCarthy and the House speaker,
Paul Ryan, who had both urged their colleagues during the closed-door
meeting to vote against the idea, arguing that it should be done
later and on a bipartisan basis.
Both men then
appeared to defend the move on Tuesday morning – “The office is
still expected to take in complaints of wrongdoing from the public.
It will still investigate them thoroughly and independently,” Ryan
said – only for it to collapse at the emergency meeting, fuelling a
sense of confusion and chaos before Trump is even inaugurated.
The OCE was
conceived in 2008 to investigate allegations of misconduct after a
series of bribery and corruption scandals that resulted in three
members of Congress being sent to jail.
The Republicans’
plan would have barred the OCE from considering anonymous tips about
potential ethics violations, seen by critics as a potential deterrent
to whistleblowers, and would have meant the OCE would have fallen
under the control of the House Ethics Committee, which is run by
lawmakers. It would have been known as the Office of Congressional
Complaint Review, and the rule change would have required that “any
matter that may involve a violation of criminal law must be referred
to the Committee on Ethics for potential referral to law enforcement
agencies after an affirmative vote by the members”, according to
the office of Representative Bob Goodlatte, a Republican from
Virginia who pushed for the change. Lawmakers would have had the
final say on their colleagues under the change.
Goodlatte expressed
disappointment: “Gross misrepresentation by opponents of my
amendment, and the media willing to go along with this agenda,
resulted in a flurry of misconceptions and unfounded claims about the
true purpose of this amendment,” he said in a statement. “To be
perfectly clear, the OCE has a serious and important role in the
House, and my amendment would have done nothing to impede their work
or lessen the high ethical standards to which all members of Congress
should be held.”
During the
nomination process for Ryan as speaker and Pelosi as minority leader
in the House on Tuesday, many Democrats said they were voting for
Pelosi because “the people’s house should be ethical, accountable
and open to free debate”. One said: “We should read the bills
before we pass the bills.” There were heckles from Republicans.
Ryan won the
election for speaker with 239 votes, while Pelosi notched 189.
Republican Liz Cheney, daughter of former vice-president Dick Cheney,
who won her father’s old House seat in Wyoming, sat beside him in
the crowded chamber, which included some members’ young children.
Meanwhile,
addressing the Senate for the first time as minority leader, Chuck
Schumer, of New York, implored Trump not to abandon the promise of
change that helped elect him.
“Making America
Great Again requires more than 140 characters per issue,” Schumer
said of the president-elect’s habit of sparking outcry with a
single tweet. “With all due respect, America cannot afford a
Twitter presidency.”
He added: “On
January 20, we won’t be in reality TV – we’ll be in reality.”
Vice-president Joe
Biden, who also serves as the president of the Senate, presided over
the swearing-in ceremony for a historic class of new senators. Among
them were Catherine Cortez Masto, of Nevada, who is the first Latina
senator, Kamala Harris, of California, the first Indian American
senator, and Tammy Duckworth, of Illinois, an Iraq war veteran.
The new Congress is
among the most racially diverse in history, owing in large part to
the minority party, which represents the majority of racial, gender
and religious diversity.
Republicans hold a
52-48 edge over Democrats in the Senate and 241-194 advantage in the
House.
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