Blog 3.1

1. What types of policies is the new Congress going to pursue? Why is the Ethics office an obstacle to these?

2. What changes did the incoming Congress make to the Office of Congressional Ethics?

3. How does Republican leadership feel about these changes?

4. Why do current Congressmen dislike the Office of Congressional Ethics?

5. What was the role of the Office of Congressional Ethics?

6. Why do Congressmen want to be able to control the spokesperson for this office?

7. What are the likely outcomes of these changes?

Answer

1a. "Emboldened Republicans are ready to push an ambitious agenda on everything from health care to infrastructure, issues that will be the subject of intense lobbying from corporate interests."

1b. They would provide oversight on the actions taken to reach these goals, oversight that could prevent them in some fashion potentially.

2. The change they want to make is one that would effectively kill the Office of Congressional Ethics, thus taking away "both power and independence from an investigative body, and give lawmakers more control over internal inquiries."

3. "Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the majority leader, spoke out during the meeting to oppose the measure..."

4. "The Office of Congressional Ethics has been controversial since its creation and has faced intense criticism from many of its lawmaker targets — both Democrats and Republicans — as its investigations have consistently been more aggressive than those conducted by the House Ethics Committee."

5. The essentially act as a watchdog too: "The Office of Congressional Ethics, which is overseen by a six-member outside board, does not have subpoena power. But it has its own staff of investigators who spend weeks conducting confidential interviews and collecting documents based on complaints they receive from the public, or news media reports, before issuing findings that detail any possible violation of federal rules or laws. The board then votes on whether to refer the matter to the full House Ethics Committee, which conducts its own review."

6. If Congress has a control of the office, there would be partisan investigations, which would thus allow for more lenient investigations by the Office, thus allowing for more unbridled activity.

7. "By moving all of the authority to the House Ethics Committee, several ethics lawyers said, the House risks becoming far too protective of members accused of wrongdoing."