House Republicans decided not to kill the Office of Congressional Ethics as a first order of business following bipartisan pressure to do so, the NYT reports:
The reversal came less than 24 hours after House Republicans, meeting in a secret session, voted, over the objections of Speaker Paul D. Ryan, to eliminate the independent ethics office. It was created in 2009 in the aftermath of a series of scandals involving House lawmakers, including three who were sent to jail.
Mr. Trump criticized House Republicans on Tuesday for their move to gut the office, saying they should focus instead on domestic policy priorities such as health care and a tax overhaul.
Top photo: Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who spearheaded efforts to kill the office.
Thousands jammed Congressional phone lines, outraged about ethics amendment@AP @nytimes @cnn don't even mention this, give credit to Trump
— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) January 3, 2017
