Bob Ney, who was convicted of receiving bribes, and Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist who provided such bribes. After regaining a majority in the House of Representatives during the 118th United States Congress, House Republicans announced plans to change OCE rules, with the set of changes including "reinstat[ing] two four-year term limits for board members, which haven’t been enforced since 2014. It also could require the board to hire the office’s staff for the entire session within 30 calendar days of the rules package passing. Any new hires would require the approval of at least four board members." According to Forbes, "the term limits would immediately remove three of the four Democratic members from the office’s board, but none of the four Republican board members would be dismissed. (Although members of each party chose the board’s members, they are supposed to perform their duties independently of their affiliation.) It could be difficult to fill the newly vacated spots within 30 days, which might leave the board with just five members. That would, in turn, make it harder to hire new employees, as four votes would be required to extend a job offer. The change also would leave Republican-appointed members with almost total control of staffing decisions. Even at full strength, hiring personnel sometimes take months." The Guardian stated that "though seemingly innocuous, the changes appear to have been drafted to strike at the principal vulnerabilities of OCE and defang its investigative powers for at least the next two years." Various government watchdog groups, like Campaign Legal Center, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and Accountable.US, pushed back on the GOP move. Board of directors The current membership Mike Barnes, former Democratic congressman from Maryland Paul Vinovich, co-chair and former Republican congressional staffer Belinda Pinckney, retired United States Army brigadier general Karen L. Haas, former Clerk of the House of Representatives and former Republican congressional staffer Karan English, former Democratic congresswoman Robert Hurt Leon Acton Westmoreland, former Republican congressman from Georgia Bill Luther, former Democratic congressman from Minnesota Former board members include: David Skaggs, co-chair and former Democratic congressman References External links OCE Official Site Committee on Standards of Official Conduct official site Ethics organizations Agencies of the United States Congress 2008 establishments in Washington, D.C.