1. What types of policies is the new Congress going to pursue? Why is the Ethics office an obstacle to these? The new Congress with a Republican majority, plans to reform healthcare system and infrastructure. They know many people will try to lobby these issues, they want to gain control of the Ethics office so they have more leeway in their decisions. It would give them more freedom.
2. What changes did the incoming Congress make to the Office of Congressional Ethics? Under the House Ethics Committee, they want a new Office of Congressional Complaint Review.
3. How does Republican leadership feel about these changes? Some people think it is a good idea because it strengthens party oversight; but opposers dislike it because it breeds distrust and scandals since the party will have too much power, as they would want to protect the accused people.
4. Why do current Congressmen dislike the Office of Congressional
Ethics? A congressman says that it could give lawmakers better protection against the overzealous OCE.
5. What was the role of the Office of Congressional Ethics? The OEC has investigators collect documents and interview people if someone files a complaint about someone in the house, and they find any possible violation of federal laws. The board then votes to decide whether to send it to the Ethics committee or not for further investigation.
6. Why do Congressmen want to be able to control the spokesperson for this office? Findings must be published so politicians want to be able to control them to save face and not have their reputation tainted if something scandalous were to happen.
7. What are the likely outcomes of these changes? Scandals will be prevalent because of the freedom they have, compared to the past years. It could also cause more public distrust since the government can hide things better with these changes.
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