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US Congress: Republicans vote to limit ethics body
US Congress: Republicans vote to limit ethics body
BBC NEWS From the section US & Canada
January 3, 2017
The 115th US Congress meets for the first time on Tuesday. Republicans in the US House of Representatives have voted to weaken the body that investigates claims of misconduct against members of Congress.
Under the change, the independent Office of Congressional Ethics would come under the control of the House Ethics Committee.
Republican leaders in the House had opposed the change. The newly elected Congress meets later and the full House will vote on the proposed new rules.
Democrats reacted angrily to the vote.
Democratic leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi, said the amendment to the rules would effectively destroy the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE).
"Republicans claim they want to 'drain the swamp,' but the night before the new Congress gets sworn in, the House GOP [Republican Party] has eliminated the only independent ethics oversight of their actions" she said in a statement.
"Evidently, ethics are the first casualty of the new Republican Congress".
After their unexpected success in November's elections, Republicans will control both houses in the new session of the US Congress.
The OCE was created in 2008 after a series of embarrassing scandals, including that involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff who was jailed for Miami for conspiracy and fraud.
Some felt that the House Ethics Committee had previously been held back from investigating wrongdoing by fellow members of the House of Representatives.
President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly called for voters to "drain the swamp" of Washington politics, claiming the federal government was corrupt and dysfunctional.
While Republican leaders in the House, Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, were opposed to the amendment, rank and file members voted to support it in a closed session of the House Republican Conference.
The House of Representatives is the lower house of the US Congress and all its 435 members are elected every two years.
The US constitution says that "each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings", so at the start of each new Congress, the House of Representatives has to approve its own rules and regulations.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38494455
