The US House of Representatives has been forced to drop a plan to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) after President-elect Donald Trump criticized the move.
On Monday, House Republicans voted to weaken the OCE, an independent ethics watchdog established to investigate allegations of misconduct by legislators in the lower chamber of Congress.
Under the change, which provoked a fierce backlash from Democrats and transparency activists, the OCE would come under the control of the House of Representatives Ethics Committee.
The Republicans secretly decided to rename the OCE as “the Office of Congressional Complaint Review,” which would have curbed the office’s influence.
However, they were forced to abandon their plans when Trump intervened, an indication of the powerful influence he appears to be wielding over his party lawmakers.
“With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics…