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Payne, Jr. Statement on GOP Reversing Plan to Destroy Office of Congressional Ethics

January 3, 2017

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Donald M. Payne, Jr. (NJ-10) released the following statement after House Republicans reversed plans to gut the independent Office of Congressional Ethics:

“I’m deeply disturbed that Republicans decided to start the new Congress by moving to effectively destroy the Office of Congressional Ethics.

“The OCE was founded so that members of the public, members of Congress, and congressional staff could issue ethics complaints without retribution.

“Putting the OCE under the oversight of the House Committee on Ethics would have threatened the independence of this nonpartisan office, and I strongly opposed that decision.

“While I’m glad that Republicans have reversed course, I remain troubled that they wanted to gut the ethics office in the first place.

“I thank everyone who called my office in opposition to the Republicans’ ethically-deficient move to undermine the OCE.”

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