Senate Confirms Biden Ethics Official to Oversee Trump Vetting

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/senate-confirms-biden-ethics-official-to-oversee-trump-vetting

39 comments

  1. This is all I could copy/paste:) But, it’s fantastic news!

    * Biden pick will run the ethics office during Trump’s term
    * The agency is deeply involved in the nomination process

    “The Senate Thursday confirmed President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the main ethics watchdog in the executive branch, one set to be involved in nominee vetting for the entirety of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term.

    Senators voted 50-46, along party lines Thursday to confirm David Huitema’s nomination to run the Office of Government Ethics, created after the Watergate scandal, for a five-year term. The OGE—which has lacked a director for more than a year—oversees more than 140 agencies, enforcing ethics rules to prevent financial conflicts of interest among federal employees.

    The agency is also heavily involved in the nomination process…”

    EDITED TO ADD:

    This from the following letter urging his confirmation. I have to believe Biden’s choice is much better than someone that Trump might have chosen…..

    [https://www.citizen.org/article/letter-to-senate-urging-confirmation-of-oge-director/](https://www.citizen.org/article/letter-to-senate-urging-confirmation-of-oge-director/)

    >One of the most important roles of the Office of Government Ethics is to oversee and advise the presidential transition process. The selection and nomination of most new administration officials takes place during the transition, in which OGE’s vetting of pending nominees for conflicts of interest is most critical. The Office needs to be fully staffed and operational during the course of the transition period.

  2. Best news I’ve heard all week. I hope the current administration can do more appointments like this along party lines.

  3. So at the moment, anything Senators vote for along party lines is D-50 R-46 and passes??

  4. I mean good but what was this office doing from 2016-2020?

  5. This combines with the fact that Trump didn’t get his first-choice pick for Speaker of the House.

    Maybe there are still some adults in the room in Washington D.C.

  6. Here’s hoping this person has teeth and won’t simply be ignored or target by trump

  7. Headline in two months: Trump fires official overseeing ethics vetting.

  8. Elected a convicted rapist and demands ethics approval? Stupid. These people are all stupid.

  9. Oh I’m sure the Trump administration and congressional Republicans will for sure listen to what this guy says….

    Another toothless bureaucrat

  10. Something tells me the OGE will be the first thing on the chopping block for DOGE.

  11. This is very cool, but (and this is a genuine question) is there any reason to believe trump won’t just veto this?

  12. Won’t it be moot if they bypass the normal vetting process if they do all recess appointments?

    Edited for autocorrect being a dick and me missing it

  13. All he needs to do is fire his cabinet and replace with his idiot choices once in office.

  14. “However, Walter Shaub, who led the OGE during the Obama administration and resigned in 2017 after months of conflict with the Trump White House, warned in a Thursday interview with Government Executive that “it might be a hollow victory for government ethics if Trump fires Huitema after the inauguration.”

    “Even if Trump doesn’t fire Huitema, OGE won’t be able to prevent Trump’s top appointees from retaining conflicting financial interests if the Senate grants Trump’s request that lawmakers conspire in skirting or short-shrifting the constitutional confirmation process,” Shaub added.

  16. Biden also tagged Merrick Garland to prosecute Trump. Don’t get your hopes up.

  17. Time to cockblock Trump before he fucks the world over

  19. Biden also picked Garland… Someone tell me this isn’t the same bullshit.

  20. Yaaa this guy is prob the first to be fired or just plain ignored.

  22. Did they wait on this until now in the hopes of blocking Trump from naming his replacement? (Since it’s a 5 year term, naming them a year ago when the vacancy opened might’ve let Trump name the replacement at the end of 2028)

  23. This was a party line vote. Come January no party and then YOU get a recess apointment you get a recess apointment everyone gets a recess appointment!

  24. Trump has gotten away with anything he wants, so i doubt this will do anything.

  26. he’ll spend a productive 4 years sending strongly worded letters about possible violations to the circular master file at Trump’s DoJ. centralizing the entire federal government under the president was a huge mistake that we got to by pure accident and some malicious designs. the GOP have their theory of a unitary executive where nothing in the federal government is off limits to the executive’s pen, even when strict limits are laid out by congress. money from any program can and will be reprogrammed against congress’s will to fit whatever the executive wants.

    congress to them is basically a cash register, doleing out money for the president to spend how he sees fit.

  27. Doesn’t mean s*** if those who violate ethics aren’t held to some sort of consequence.

  28. This guy won’t be able to stop anything. Only Congress can.

  29. Y’all understand Trump will just disband this office. Y’all get that, right?

  30. It doesn’t matter. Trump will find a way around it.

  31. This dude will have zero power to stop anything let’s not get our hopes up like Reddit has a history of doing.

  32. Oh, good. Now if Trump does something unethical, we can see justice served!

    *rolls eyes so deeply the stick in the back of my skull*

  34. What’s stopping Trump from firing him like he did with everyone during his first term?

  35. While it’s a good thing things happening. The reality is the role has no teeth. It can only make recommendations to the DOJ and Senate.

  37. Yea we’re skipping that whole vetting thing, so suck it- trump admin

  38. This is pointless theater. Trump wont bother with securing appointment approval for his picks because he already proved last time that nobody will stop him from using permanent “acting” positions. He can give classified clearances to anyone he wants as POTUS, which he did with his children after they were initially rejected by the intel agencies.

Comments are closed.