Over the decade, the independent Office of Congressional Ethics targeted Republicans in nearly 60% of the cases it opened, a review of the data shows, and the office targeted more Republican lawmakers even when Democrats were the majority party in Congress.
While Democrats might explain the difference by pointing the finger at excessive GOP misbehavior, Republicans suspect the OCE has morphed from a nonpartisan entity into a repository for attacks against House Republicans by outside liberal-leaning watchdog groups like Common Cause, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and Democracy 21.
The House GOP, seeking to reinforce the traditional nonpartisan functioning of the board, voted to implement small but critical changes in how both the OCE and the House internal investigatory panel, the Ethics Committee, operate in the 118th Congress.