House GOP Retreats on Proposal to Undercut Ethics Watchdog

House Republicans, caught in a PR mess for proposing to drastically weaken an independent ethics watchdog office, announced Tuesday afternoon that they would not move forward with their plans.

The surprise proposal, which the House Republican Conference voted on in a closed-door meeting Monday night, would have stripped the Office of Congressional Ethics of most of its independent power to review congressional conduct, making it subservient to the member-run House Ethics Committee. The office, in effect, would have been supervised by some of the same people it was meant to keep honest.

According to reports, Speaker Paul Ryan and Rep. Kevin McCarthy opposed the reforms Monday night. But in statements made Tuesday, both said they were prepared to vote with their party on the issue.

The party faced harsh criticism in the press and from its opponents all morning.

“Republicans claim they want to ‘drain the swamp,’ but the night before the new Congress gets sworn in, the House GOP has eliminated the only independent ethics oversight of their actions," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. "Evidently, ethics are the first casualty of the new Republican Congress."

Kellyanne Conway, a spokeswoman for President-elect Donald Trump, defended the plan on "Today" with Matt Lauer. But Trump himself later took to Twitter to criticize the timing of the move — while agreeing that the current office was "unfair" — and saying that the GOP had more important priorities than undercutting the watchdog:

Indeed, some reports suggest that this move may be a delay, rather than an end, for GOP plans to roll back ethics oversight. According to Fox News reporter Chad Pergram, House Ethics Committee Chairwoman Susan Brooks said that Republicans plan to reform the office in August.

According to Robert Costa of the Washington Post, many representatives were deluged with complaints from voters about the changes to the ethics rules, which was the most important factor in their backpedaling.

The Office of Congressional Ethics was formed in 2008 after two congressional Republicans and one Democrat were investigated on bribery charges and convicted.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore