House Ethics watchdog finally opens in 119th Congress after board members finally appointed

The House’s outside ethics watchdog as of Tuesday can now start investigating lawmakers accused of ethics violations, ending the office's longest period of dormancy since its founding in 2008.

The Office of Congressional Conduct (OCC), which investigates allegations of Congressional misconduct and sends the findings to the House Ethics Committee, has been shuttered for the first four months of the 119th Congress while waiting for the House to appoint its board members.

The House clerk on Tuesday finally announced four of the board members, including former House clerk Karen Haas and former Minnesota Democratic Rep. Bill Luther as co-chairs. Former House clerk Lorraine Miller and former Georgia GOP Rep. Lynn Westmoreland will also be on the board, and all four were on the board last year, per Politico.

It's not clear at this point what the hold-up was about, according to the outlet. 

The staffers for the office, who were allowed to gather freely-accessible information to develop cases, are now expected to face a mountain of work that built up over the past four months. 

The office is designed to receive ethics complaints from the public against any House member, investigate the validity of the allegations, and then turn legitimate cases to the House Ethics Committee, which makes the final decision.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.