GOP senator who defended Giuliani’s ‘shadow foreign policy’ will chair ethics committee
By: Josh Israel, The American Independent, December 11, 2019
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) has reportedly been tapped to become the new chair of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics next month. The committee’s primary role is to investigate allegations of misconduct by senators and senate employees and to recommend disciplinary action.
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Daniel Stevens, executive director for the nonpartisan Campaign for Accountability, said in a phone interview that Lankford is unlikely to improve an already problematic committee. “The Senate Ethics Committee isn’t exactly an active body,” he observed. “For many years, lots of us in the watchdog community have been complaining there’s a lack of accountability. If they’re gonna appoint someone who isn’t interested in ethics, that’s more of the same.”
He pointed to the House of Representatives, which created an independent Office of Congressional Ethics to review ethics allegations, saying “maybe [Lankford’s appointment] is a good indication why the Senate needs a similar body, so that complaints can be taken seriously and investigated.”