In an emergency meeting on Tuesday, House Republicans moved to eliminate the independent Office of Congressional Ethics, a group created one decade ago after the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, in which lobbyists grossly overcharged for their services. This move has triggered outrage from Democrats and government watchdog groups. Outside ethics groups point to the ethics panel as the only entity policing members and see its bipartisan board as an appropriate way to oversee investigations.

Many Republicans, such as Republican Congressmen Rep. Hal Rogers, Rep. Bill Flores, and Rep. Bob Goodlatte, backed the proposal to be rid of the committee.

President-elect Donald Trump took offense with the plan that the House Republicans proposed for the Ethics Committee and took to Twitter on January 3^rd.

“With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethic Watchdog, as unfair as it may be, their number one act and priority. Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance!”

This opened a divide in the GOP and put Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Donald Trump on opposite sides of the issue.

After the tweet from the President-elect and criticism from both Democrats and Republicans alike, the House revoked the plan to gut the Independent Office of Ethics Committee.

Stay tuned for more.