Rep. Kevin McCarthy is in an interesting crucible in his quest to become House speaker. What are some recalcitrant members of the hard right faction of the GOP asking him to do in order to lend support?
Read this.
According to Time Magazine, they want to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), which just happens to be investigating certain House members behavior relating to January 6, 2021.
Most significantly, McCarthy’s proposal would require OCE to hire its staff for the 118th Congress within 30 days of the resolution’s adoption, a requirement that sources familiar with the process tell TIME would make it exceedingly difficult for the office to have the resources it needs to conduct its investigations, given how long it takes to hire candidates for roles in the federal government. The proposal would also block OCE from hiring new employees over the next two years if someone leaves their position, sources say.
“This is a very smart way to do it,” adds Payne, a former OCE deputy chief counsel. “Because it looks as though the office still lives, but, in fact, it doesn’t.”“Republicans get to take control of the House, and on their first day in Congress, they are not trying to take a hammer to the OCE—they’re being a little smarter about it—but they’re taking a scalpel to it,” a Hill source familiar with the ethics process tells TIME.“This could easily kill the only body that’s investigating ethical issues in Congress,” says Kedric Payne with the Campaign Legal Center. “There’s no investigations in the Senate. And the only investigations that happen in the House of any significance are done by the OCE.”
Brilliant move really. Cynical, perfidious, but what else did you expect? First rule of politics, cover your ass.
Gaetz, Gosar, Biggs, Perry, Jordan, Greene, Boebert and Co. will now get to skedaddle down the road and completely evade accountability. Should be an interesting two years.
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