WASHINGTON — House Republicans, overriding their top leaders, voted Monday to significantly curtail the power of an independent ethics office set up in 2008 in the aftermath of corruption scandals that sent three members of Congress to jail.
The move to effectively kill the Office of Congressional Ethics was not made public until late Monday, when Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, announced that the House Republican Conference had approved the change. There was no advance notice or debate on the measure.
The surprising vote came on the eve of the start of a new session of Congress, where 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. The House Republicans’ move would take away both power and independence from an investigative body, and give lawmakers more control over internal inquiries.
It also comes on the eve of a historic shift in power in Washington, where Republicans control both houses of Congress and where a wealthy businessman with myriad potential conflicts of interests is preparing to move into the White House.
Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the majority leader, spoke out to oppose the measure, aides said Monday night. The full House is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the rules, which would last for two years, until the next congressional elections.
In place of the office, Republicans would create a new Office of Congressional Complaint Review that would report to the House Ethics Committee, which has been accused of ignoring credible allegations of wrongdoing by lawmakers.
“Poor way to begin draining the swamp,’’ Tom Fitton, president of the conservative group Judicial Watch, said on Twitter.
Goodlatte defended the action in a statement, saying it would strengthen ethics oversight in the House while also giving lawmakers better protections against what some members have called overzealous efforts by the Office of Congressional Ethics.
“The OCE has a serious and important role in the House, and this amendment does nothing to impede their work,’’ the statement said in part.
But Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House minority leader, joined others who worked to create the office in expressing outrage at the move and the secretive way that it was orchestrated.
“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,’’ she said in a statement. “Evidently, ethics are the first casualty of the new Republican Congress.’’
The Office of Congressional Ethics has been controversial since its creation, and subject to intense criticism by 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.
It was created after a string of serious ethical cases starting a decade ago, including bribery allegations against three representatives: Duke Cunningham, a California Republican; William J. Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat; and Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican. All three were convicted of such abuses, and served time in jail.
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 doing confidential interviews and collecting documents based on complaints it receives from the public or 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 then conducts its own review.
But the House Ethics Committee, even if it dismisses the potential ethics violation as unfounded, is mandated under House rules to release the Office of Congressional Ethics staff report detailing the alleged wrongdoing, creating a deterrent to such questionable behavior by lawmakers.
Under the new arrangement, the new Office of Congressional Complaint Review could not take anonymous complaints, and all of its investigations would be overseen by the House Ethics Committee itself, which is made up of lawmakers who answer to their own party.
