The House Ethics Committee should investigate the Freedom Caucus and their Chairman Jim Jordan for possible ethics violations related to Caucus members secretly agreeing to bind their votes together. Elected officials take an oath of office that should not be superseded by a private oath to a secretive caucus. It is un-American and unethical.

The House Freedom Caucus is a subversive, ultra-right-wing group of approximately 40 Reps in the U.S. House. The secretive group does not even publish an official list of it's members. It has been reported by the Pew Research Center that "decisions agreed to by 80% of the caucus are supposed to be binding on all." This would seem to violate the U.S. House of Representative's Code of Ethics and the democratic principles that our government is founded upon.

The House Ethics Manual includes the Code of Ethics for Government Service which states that those in government service should "make no private promises binding on the duties of office."

A Representative's vote should be cast on the behalf of that Representative's constituents and be based upon their own conscience. If true that members of the Freedom Caucus have taken an oath to bind their vote a certain way, even if that vote violates their conscience and disagrees with the way that the Representative had intended to vote, then the very nature of our democracy has been compromised. A Representative should not encumber their vote to anything other than their Oath of Office.

The House Ethics Committee needs to investigate the matter to determine if such an oath has been taken. If an oath has been taken the Committee must determine who has taken it and what votes were potentially changed due to the oath. Appropriate punishment must then be handed down to any Representatives guilty of any ethics violations.