House Republicans undo plan to neuter ethics panel
Angry constituents, Trump spur lawmakers to reverse decision
WASHINGTON — The 115th Congress opened Tuesday under a cloud of controversy as House Republicans — besieged by angry constituents and admonished by President-elect Donald Trump — abruptly reversed a decision to strip an independent congressional ethics panel of significant powers.
The controversy erupted late Monday after House Republicans, who control the chamber, voted secretly to neuter the independent Office of Congressional Ethics and place its key functions under lawmakers’ control. As U.S. House members made their way into the Capitol on Tuesday for the first day of the new Congress, many were bombarded with constituent phone calls complaining about the move.
Trump also weighed in on Twitter, admonishing his fellow Republicans for the timing — if not the substance — of the decision.
“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 tweeted Tuesday morning.
A couple of hours later, House Republicans called an emergency meeting and unanimously voted to rescind the ethics panel changes they adopted the night before.
The episode was a powerful illustration of the sway Trump may hold over his party in a Washington that will be fully under Republican control for the first time in a decade. Lawmakers who have felt unfairly targeted by the ethics office had defied their own House GOP leaders with their initial vote to gut the body, but once Trump weighed in they backpedaled immediately.
The Republican vote Monday night would have barred the ethics panel from considering anonymous tips against lawmakers and revealing its investigative findings to other branches of government or the public. It also would have reportedly kept the ethics watchdog from investigating criminal activity and directed the office to refer any hint of such actions to a separate lawmaker-controlled ethics panel.
Rep. Steve Pearce, a New Mexico Republican who in the last Congress introduced a failed bill to deny the Office of Congressional Ethics a funding increase, was among House Republicans voting in favor of weakening the ethics panel Monday. Pearce’s chief of staff, Todd Willens, said Tuesday that the congressman did not “lead” the House effort to strip the panel of its power, but that he supported the move to shift its power to the House Ethics Committee, a separate panel.
“Steve is in favor of changes that strengthen the ethics of the House and allow the committees to operate according to their stated missions,” Willens said, adding that the action was aimed at becoming part of a larger House rules package. “This amendment struck that balance. Since it has been struck from the rules, the issue is done and it is time to get on to other important items awaiting congressional action.”
The Office of Congressional Ethics was created in 2008 in response to several bribery and corruption cases in the House, but lawmakers of both parties have complained about the way it operates.
Bipartisan critics
Lawmakers were angered by an investigation of members of Congress from both parties — including Democratic Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico — who went on a 2013 trip to Azerbaijan paid for by that country’s government. Lawmakers said after the investigation was made public in 2015 that they did not know the trip was paid for by Azerbaijan’s government, and the House Ethics Committee ultimately cleared them of wrongdoing.
Once the ethics controversy was dispensed with on Tuesday, lawmakers in both chambers of Congress returned to ceremonial business. As set out in the Constitution, both chambers gaveled in at noon, and as storm clouds threatened outside, the halls of the Capitol filled with lawmakers’ children, friends and spouses on hand to witness the procedures. The day had a festive feel of the first day back at school, as new arrivals roamed the halls with more experienced members.
In the Senate, Vice President Joe Biden administered the oath of office to seven new members, as well as those who had won re-election. The Senate will be controlled 52-48 by the GOP and includes two new Republicans and five new Democrats. Biden remains president of the Senate until Trump becomes president Jan. 20; then Vice President-elect Mike Pence will take over.
In the House, lawmakers filled the chamber to elect their speaker, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. The House will number 241 Republicans and 194 Democrats; among the members are 52 freshmen.
The first week of the new Congress will be a preview of the hectic pace planned by Republicans for the start of Trump’s term. The GOP is eager to turn to the business of dismantling Obama’s health care law, and that effort is to begin with a procedural vote later in the week in the Senate. Obama plans a rare trip to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to meet with congressional Democrats and discuss strategy for saving the health care law. Pence will meet with Republicans.
Votes also are expected on resolutions to denounce the United Nations for condemning the construction of Israeli settlements.