Maine’s 2nd Congressional District Congressman Bruce Poliquin said Tuesday he is bucking his own party by opposing a proposal by House Republicans to gut the Office of Government Ethics.
The independent body was created in 2008 to investigate allegations of misconduct by lawmakers after several bribery and corruption scandals sent members to prison. House Republicans voted Monday to make several changes to the non-partisan ethics body, so it would fall under the control of the House Ethics Committee, which is run by lawmakers. It would be known as the Office of Congressional Complaint Review, and the rule change would require that “any matter that may involve a violation of criminal law must be referred to the Committee on Ethics for potential referral to law enforcement agencies after an affirmative vote by the members.”
The ethics change prompted an outcry from Democrats and government watchdog groups and is part of a rules package that the full House will vote on today.
In a statement Tuesday, Poliquin, a Republican who was recently reelected to a second term, said “the American People have spoken overwhelmingly in the last election in sending us here to fix the real problems facing our Nation” and “this is not their priority.”
“While there should be important reforms made to the Office of Congressional Ethics that both Republicans and Democrats agree on, such as ensuring due process, I opposed this proposal,” Poliquin said in the statement. “I believe it’s important that these kinds of changes to the ethics office be made in a bipartisan effort and after robust debate and discussion from both parties.”
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Donald Trump said Tuesday that House Republicans should focus on more important policy than their controversial effort to weaken an independent ethics office.
But in his tweeted statement, Trump held back any serious criticism of their action, calling the ethics watchdog „unfair“ to lawmakers.
In a closed-door meeting Monday, a day before the start of the 115th Congress, the House GOP adopted a rules package amendment to put the Office of Congressional Ethics under the jurisdiction of the House Ethics Committee. The surprise move effectively gives the lawmakers themselves oversight over investigations into misconduct by lawmakers and staff. It will also prevent more information from being released to the public.
The plan sparked immediate outrage, with House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi calling ethics „the first casualty of the new Republican Congress. “ Some Democrats tied Trump to the move and said that it showed his campaign pledges to rid Washington of corruption were already getting abandoned.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, who introduced the amendment, argued that it would increase due process protection for House members. The GOP will vote on the package later Tuesday.
Trump’s statement also pits him against GOP lawmakers on only the first day of a new Congress.
Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who helped to craft the Office of Congressional Ethics while a congressman, slammed Trump for calling it „unfair“ to lawmakers.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, who initially opposed the amendment, defended it on Tuesday. He argued in a statement that „this House will hold its members to the highest ethical standards and the office will continue to operate independently to provide public accountability to Congress. “
„The Office will continue to be governed by a bipartisan independent outside board with ultimate decision-making authority. The Office is still expected to take in complaints of wrongdoing from the public,“ Ryan said. „It will still investigate them thoroughly and independently. And the outside board will still decide whether or not evidence exists to warrant a full investigation by the House Ethics Committee. “
Top Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway also defended the House GOP’s action in a CNBC interview Tuesday, claiming that Americans should not get „the impression, somehow, that ethics is gone now. „

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A month ago on „Saturday Night Live,“ Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump character assured that he would „do what I promised to do my whole campaign, and I am going to build that swamp. “
„Don’t you mean drain the swamp and build the wall? “ adviser Kellyanne Conway responded. Trump shot back: „No, that’s too many things. Just smush them together. “
Trump’s promise to „drain the swamp“ has long hung over his transition effort — and almost always for the wrong reasons. Every time a potential conflict of interest or insider Cabinet pick crops up, there’s that pithy catchphrase looming as a contrast to what Trump is actually doing as president-elect. Newt Gingrich even said Trump’s team had exiled the slogan. (Trump has denied that ; on Tuesday, he tweeted out the slogan’s hashtag.)
Someone incorrectly stated that the phrase „DRAIN THE SWAMP“ was no longer being used by me. Actually, we will always be trying to DTS.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2016
But it’s not just Trump who is now arguably „building the swamp. “ On Monday night, at the 11th hour before the new Congress is sworn in, the House Republican conference voted to do something that runs pretty clearly counter to any efforts to drain their own swamp: severely undercutting the powers of an independent ethics committee set up in the aftermath of the congressional scandals of last decade.
Given this building narrative, we thought it worth recapping the ways in which the swamp is being replenished right now — or at the very least is hardly being drained.
1. The Office of Congressional Ethics
With their vote behind closed doors Monday night, House Republicans voted to do a few things :
House Republicans took this vote over the reported objections of House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). Supporters, including chief sponsor Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), insist it doesn’t handicap the committee’s work. But given the above, it’s hard to argue the committee didn’t lose a huge amount of power and independence. The ethics process in Congress has earned a reputation for intransigence — often because of partisanship and a desire to not rock the boat — and now members will again exercise effective veto power over their own colleagues‘ ethics investigations.
Trump seemed to sympathize with the likes of Goodlatte on Tuesday, calling the office „unfair“ but questioning whether its reform should have been a priority:
With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2017
……..may be, their number one act and priority. Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance! #DTS
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2017
2. Trump’s personal finances
We still don’t know exactly what Trump will do with his personal finances as president, because he has delayed a news conference on the subject. (It’s now set for Jan. 11 .)
What we do know is that his vast business empire and foreign interests pose an unprecedented number of potential conflicts of interest for a president. And Trump doesn’t sound like he’ll go nearly as far as ethics watchdogs would like. He’s repeatedly downplayed the issue, suggesting that the media are making a big deal out of nothing.
That sounds a lot like a guy who is about to disappoint those hoping he’ll put up real walls between him and his business. And they have reason to worry; Trump has thus far indicated that he’ll put his adult children in charge of his business interests — his lawyer has labeled this a „blind trust,“ but it doesn’t meet the definition — and he has continued to involve his kids in his transition effort.
Trump apparently isn’t divesting his foreign assets, either, unfurling a whole other list of potential conflicts as he deals with world leaders and foreign countries. And for the latest installment in how Trump’s business could intersect with his presidency, here’s what CNN reported Tuesday morning :
Donald Trump gave a lengthy description of his electoral victory, and lavished praise upon a Dubai business partner, during a ten-minute speech to 800 paying guests at his Florida estate Saturday night.
At points throughout his address, Trump name-checked prominent attendees, including „Hussain and the whole family,“ an apparent reference to his billionaire business partner in Dubai, Hussain Sajwani .
3. Trump’s Cabinet
On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly used Goldman Sachs as a foil — both for his top primary opponent, Ted Cruz, and for Hillary Clinton.
As of today, though, Trump has named former Goldman Sachs partner Steve Mnuchin as his treasury secretary and Goldman Sachs president and COO Gary Cohn to lead his National Economic Council. His top adviser, Stephen Bannon, also worked at Goldman early in his career. And as our Philip Bump notes , Trump’s picks for transportation secretary, education secretary, commerce secretary, deputy commerce secretary and army secretary have all worked in finance.
Oh, and he’s also assembling the richest administration in modern history , featuring six billionaires — a figure that includes Trump but doesn’t include wealthy ExxonMobil CEO and secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson. And he’s also installed a number of elected officials to top posts, including Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) to lead the CIA and Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Can wealthy people, those who come from the world of finance and politicians drain the swamp? Anything is possible. But Trump’s rhetoric on the campaign trail suggested he was skeptical such reform would come from Goldman Sachs or Wall Street or Congress. And for a guy who ran as a populist, his Cabinet sure looks like a collection of elites.
4. The lobbyist loophole
Shortly after Trump’s election, his transition effort put forth a plan to crack down on the influence of lobbying in his administration.
The transition team said it would ban administration officials from serving as lobbyists for five years after leaving and said state and federal lobbyists would not be allowed to serve. But some looking to serve have simply deregistered as lobbyists, meaning they technically aren’t lobbyists anymore but were just a short while ago.
The five-year ban is particularly stringent, it should be noted, and some lobbyists chose to leave the transition effort rather than deregister. But it’s still not clear what the mechanism is for preventing former administration officials from lobbying for five years. Plus, these officials can often serve as advisers to those who do lobbying in ways that don’t technically involve lobbying.

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More than 250 small earthquakes along the Southern California-Mexico border on New Year’s Eve have left some residents worried and scientists intrigued.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the swarm of earthquakes struck the end of the Brawley Seismic Zone, which is described as an active region where tectonic plates are moving and the Earth’s crust is getting stretched out. The specific region connects the San Andreas and Imperial faults.
The Imperial fault has caused two major earthquakes, including a magnitude 6.5 tremblor that injured 91 in 1979 after it hit El Centro. The same town was also hit by a magnitude 7.1 quake that killed nine in 1940 and was felt as far away as Los Angeles.
Caltech seismologist Egill Hauksson told the Times that he was monitoring the swarm because there was a chance a magnitude 5 earthquake could’ve been triggered. The largest quake to hit the region was a magnitude 3.9 rumble that directly struck Brawley.
Hauksson said by Sunday night the possibility of a larger earthquake subsided.
The Brawley Seismic Zone stretches so far north that it could trigger a major event on the San Andreas fault, which could have disastrous effects in Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties.
Click for more from the Los Angeles Times.

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A baggage handler was apparently locked in the cargo hold of an outbound Charlotte Douglas International flight Sunday and survived the ordeal as the plane reached altitudes of up to 27,000 feet, where outside temperatures can sink to minus 30 to 34 degrees.
Many questions remain about the incident.
United Airlines is still investigating what led to the baggage handler being in a cargo hold for nearly 90 minutes during the flight. The man was found after the aircraft landed at Washington Dulles International Airport, multiple media outlets reported.
The airline said in a statement that United Express flight No. 6060 was operated by Mesa Airlines, and it landed safely at Dulles on Sunday at about 4:16 p.m. Sunday. Once the plane was at the gate, an employee of the airline’s ground handling vendor was found in the cargo area, the airline said.
According to the Washington Post , United spokeswoman could not say Monday whether the plane’s cargo hold was temperature controlled or pressurized.
The plane was an Embraer 175 regional jet with 92 seats, online airline booking records indicate.
Radio communications traffic about the flight suggested the baggage loader was accidentally locked in the cargo area at the Charlotte airport, reported Observer news partner WBTV. The man reportedly refused to be checked out by medics.
Airport officials initially treated the discovery as a security breach, as it worked to identify the employee.
Media outlets have identified the employee as Reginald Gaskin.
Gaskin, 45, told the Washington Post, “I thank God. He was with me.” Gaskin told the Post that on advice of his attorney, he would not discuss what happened.
Gaskin is an employee of G2 Secure Staff, a United vendor based in Texas that supplies baggage handling services, airline officials told the Washington Post.
United officials could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.
At 27,000 feet, for comparison, that would be the equivalent of nearing the top of Mount Everest, which reaches 29,000 feet.

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