Congress needs more ethics investigations

There have been plenty of ethics crises for members of the United States Congress. So it is ironic that one of the first orders of business for the new Congress is to make it harder for members of Congress to be investigated for possible bad behavior. As part of the rules package put forth by new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Congress has approved plans to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics. The new rules will severely weaken the office’s ability to investigate members of Congress suspected of wrongdoing. The changes were made with support from La Crosse’s newest member of Congress, Derrick Van Orden, and newly elected Congressman George Santos who is already under investigation for inflating his resume to win election. The Office of Congressional Ethics has won praise from good government groups for rooting out and punishing unethical behavior by members of Congress. It is a quasi-independent body made up of former members of Congress which investigates complaints of misconduct and if warranted refers the matter to the House Ethics Committee, comprised equally of Republicans and Democrats. It seems with all the bad behavior we have seen from members of Congress, this body should be given more resources, not fewer.