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The Democratic National Committee has responded to the Republican move to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics. In a statement, Deputy Communications Director Eric Walker says,

Here is the DNC's response to the House GOP's attempt to cripple an independent ethics entity pic.twitter.com/Tz67oZPjjz — DNC Press (@dncpress) January 3, 2017

The move has drawn widespread criticism, including from Donald Trump though less from principle than from priorities. People For the American Way’s Executive Vice President Marge Baker responded by stating,

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“Republicans are swinging the doors wide open for corruption. By gutting the OCE, they’ve taken away the only independent entity to investigate members of Congress for ethics violations, and they’ve signaled to their members that they frankly don’t care about corruption in their ranks.”

Money-in-politics watchdog Every Voice also released a statement, saying,

“House Republicans’ proposal to gut the independent Office of Congressional Ethics will enable more corruption and less accountability,” said David Donnelly, president and CEO of Every Voice. “No American, save a few members of Congress and those who want to do business in backrooms, supports this. Speaker Paul Ryan said he opposed the measure, and he should show leadership by calling for the Office of Congressional Ethics to be reinstated.”



“If this proposal does move forward,” Donnelly continued, “there must be a public roll call vote on this particular amendment so Americans know where their member of Congress stands. People deserve to know whether their member of Congress is fighting for them or fighting for more corruption.”

Everyone seems to get the importance of preventing corruption in Congress except the Republican Party. Even Donald Trump did not say the OCE was not an impediment to the GOP’s favorite pastime. He simply criticized the timing of the move.

Donald Trump has set the stage for what will be an extremely corrupt administration, and congressional Republicans were not slow to get into the act. As the DNC and others have warned, we can look to rampant corruption in Congress again, this time with a president to match.