Ethics panel targeted by GOP once investigated South Jersey lawmaker Andrews

WASHINGTON — The Congressional ethics panel that House Republicans proposed gutting this week  may be familiar to the Philadelphia area: the Office of Congressional Ethics led the investigation into U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, a South Jersey Democrat who paid for expensive trips with campaign funds.

The board, which dug into Andrews' travel in 2012 and referred its findings to the House Ethics Committee, was targeted by Republican House members who wanted to rein in the agency, arguing that it treats lawmakers unfairly. The House GOP voted privately Monday night — without advance notice, public debate or a roll call of the results — to enact changes that would hobble one of Congress' most aggressive ethics arms.

The plan, though, was scrapped Tuesday morning amid an outcry from ethics watchdogs, Democrats, some Republicans and president-elect Donald Trump, who argued on Twitter that it was the wrong move to begin a new Congress (though he also seemed to express sympathy for the agency's critics).

The spat Monday night and Tuesday morning came as Republicans opened a new Congress with a sweeping agenda and newfound power, with Trump soon to assume the presidency. It also brought cringes from some Republicans, who chided their colleagues for sparking a fight over ethics as they try to embark on an ambitious legislative agenda, and after an election in which voters expressed outrage over typical political shenanigans.

The group in question, the Office of Congressional Ethics, is an obscure but aggressive independent panel that takes complaints about potential ethics violations involving House lawmakers and staff and investigates them. The panel cannot sanction lawmakers, but passes on its reports to the House Ethics Committee, made up of House members, who then decide whether to impose penalties. The office's reports, including the evidence it gathers, eventually become public, exposing the details of lawmakers' actions and sometimes building pressure for responses.

The independent office, created in 2008 in the wake of a series of scandals, is widely seen as more aggressive than the ethics committee, on which sitting lawmakers are charged with rendering judgment on their colleagues.

In 2012 it compiled a 244-page investigation into Andrews' use of campaign funds, and urged an Ethics Committee investigation. That investigation began, but never concluded because Andrews resigned while it was still ongoing.

Lawmakers in both parties, however, complain that the office can take complaints anonymously and that its investigations and reports can lead to damaging headlines, even if they never lead to a formal sanction. Republicans proposed changes that would have put the investigative panel under the lawmaker-led Ethics Committee, and limited the way it publicized its findings. It would have also allowed the committee to shut down any investigations.

Several Republicans from the Philadelphia joined in criticizing the proposed changes.

"I had cautioned some of my colleagues last night that that one provision would create quite a stir - and it did," said Rep. Charlie Dent (R., Pa.), who chaired the ethics committee the past two years. "it was very ambiguous, it was vague, I was not clear how that would work."

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.), a former FBI agent who was sworn into office Tuesday, said he also voted against the change.

"This is a time we've got to be strengthening ethics protocol, not weakening it," Fitzpatrick said Tuesday morning, after the plan was sidelined. He instead introduced an ethics package that would impose term limits of 12-years, make changes to fight gerrymandering and other reforms. "If the system needs to be fixed, lets fix it, but it shouldn't happen behind closed doors with one party involved."

Some local Republicans expressed sympathy for those changes, but said the private, one-party vote was flawed.

Rep. Leonard Lance (R., N.J.), who was once investigated by the office, said reforms should be considered by the bipartisan Ethics Committee. The committee cleared Lance and several other lawmakers in 2015 over questions involving a privately-funded trip to Turkey and Azerbaijan.

"I supported having the ethics committee review the matter in a bipartisan capacity and I think there should be greater due process ... but the ethics committee, which is completely bipartisan, will be working on that," Lance said.

He expected changes by the end of summer.

Rep. Ryan Costello (R., Pa.) said the investigators create "a gotcha situation for a lot of members," but said changes should be done in a bipartisan way, rather than in a closed vote.

"Doing it the way that it was done isn't the way to bring about the reforms in a way that brings more credibility to the institution," Costello said after the plan was nixed.

Democrats said Republicans only balked because of public outrage.

"House Republicans showed their true colors last night, and reversing their plans to destroy the Office of Congressional Ethics will not obscure their clear contempt for ethics in the people's House," said a statement from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.).

You can follow Tamari on Twitter or email him at jtamari@phillynews.com.