{"id":37668,"date":"2024-11-16T14:21:47","date_gmt":"2024-11-16T22:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=37668"},"modified":"2024-11-16T14:21:48","modified_gmt":"2024-11-16T22:21:48","slug":"good-news-as-trump-threat-looms-senate-confirms-ethics-czar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/11\/16\/good-news-as-trump-threat-looms-senate-confirms-ethics-czar\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Good News’: As Trump Threat Looms, Senate Confirms Ethics Czar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"U.S.<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This photo shows the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., seat of the U.S. Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo: Robert Lyle Burton\/flickr\/cc)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s important that we’ll have a government ethics chief in place who serves the American people, not Trump’s wallet,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

BRETT WILKINS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nov 14, 2024 (CommonDreams.org)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the clock winds down on Democratic control of the U.S. Senate, upper chamber lawmakers on Thursday confirmed President Joe Biden’s nomination of David Huitema, head of the State Department’s ethics program, to lead the Office of Government Ethics for a five-year term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senators voted 50-46 in favor of Huitema’s confirmation to head the OGE through the duration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s tenure, averting at least temporarily a scenario in which the winner of the 2024 election\u2014who has refused<\/a> to sign required transition-related ethics agreements and whose first term saw thousands of conflicts of interest<\/a>\u2014would be empowered to fill or stonewall the post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/x.com\/SenWarren\/status\/1857136034976579938?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1857136034976579938%7Ctwgr%5Eaa650a5d7701a24eb6c078b339fcf80889c68728%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Foffice-of-government-ethics<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The OGE has been without a director for more than a year, ever since the term of Trump appointee Emory Rounds expired. In September, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) blocked Senate Democrats’ attempt to confirm Huitema via unanimous consent until after the presidential election, alleging<\/a> “political weaponization of the U.S. government against Donald Trump<\/a> by the Biden-Harris administration.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen<\/a> said<\/a> ahead of Huitema’s confirmation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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

“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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, ethics advocates cheered Huitema’s confirmation, with the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington hailing<\/a> what it called the “good news” and “an important step to safeguard ethics compliance ahead of a second Trump administration that threatens to be even more corrupt than the first.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As one Democratic strategist\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0on social media following his confirmation, “Buckle up, David Huitema.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BRETT WILKINS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This photo shows the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., seat of the U.S. Congress. \u00a0(Photo: Robert Lyle Burton\/flickr\/cc) “It’s important that we’ll have a government ethics chief in place who serves the American people, not Trump’s wallet,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren. BRETT WILKINS Nov 14, 2024 (CommonDreams.org) As the clock… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37668"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37669,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37668\/revisions\/37669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}