‘Big Implications for Ethics Cases’: Politico Reporter Warns House GOP Rules Package Would Gut Investigations

AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File

Nicholas Wu, a congressional correspondent for Politico, noted on Twitter Monday that “tucked” away in the House Republican Rules package was a section that would effectively gut the Office of Congressional Ethics.

Wu wrote, “in the House Republican Rules package – a provision tucked into its section on the Office of Congressional Ethics would effectively sack most of the Democratic-appointed board members by instituting term limits and make it much harder to hire staff.”

Wu then shared an image from the rules package of the relevant section, which read:

(6) any member of the board currently serving a term in excess of the limitations of section 1(b)(6) of such resolution shall be considered as removed from the board; and

(7) the provision regarding appointment and compensation of staff shall require an affirmative vote of at least 4 members of the board not later than 30 calendar days after the date of the adoption of this resolution.

He added, “This could have big implications for ethics cases that could come before OCE at the beginning of the new Congress – like an investigation into Republican members related to Jan. 6, or Rep-elect George Santos.”

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