My must read of the day is "House Lawmakers Exempt From Ethics Training in Emerging Rules Package," in Roll Call:
Despite a bipartisan push to make ethics training mandatory for members of the House, the GOP rules package taking shape for the 114th Congress won’t put lawmakers on the hook for any such schooling.
The January rules resolution being hammered out next week will likely include changes to the way staffers are hired for congressional membership organizations, an idea pitched by House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La. — but mandatory ethics training is off the table.
House Rules Chairman Pete Sessions said Thursday he does not view it as "proper" to add ethics training to the list of requirements for serving in the chamber.
"We look at the Constitution and say 25 years old, elected, and that’s your obligations," the Texas Republican told CQ Roll Call, when questioned about a letter from Rhode Island Democrat David Cicilline and Virginia Republican Scott Rigell asking leaders to mandate training.
Sessions will address the issue by mailing a letter reminding members of their "authority and responsibility" to make sure all their staff undergo mandatory training, he said. Sent to the home address of each incoming freshman, the letter reminds members of the requirement that Capitol Hill and district staff must undergo training within 60 days of their employment.
These days there are few things that occur in Congress that really get under my skin—perhaps it’s because I expect lawmakers to do stupid things. Or because I genuinely think the majority of politicians, Democrat or Republican, are awful and I don’t expect much from them to begin with. There are some, on both sides of the aisle, who I think are sincere and actually believe in the things they’re saying—but as a general rule of thumb I think politicians are primarily hypocritical self-promoters and I dislike them about as much as Sonny Bunch hates bicyclists.
This exemption because it’s not "proper" to force lawmakers to sit through ethics training is something that really gets under my skin.
Lawmakers should be in these classes, as I’ve said more than once, and they should want to be in them. Some politicians have proved that they need it, but beyond that it’s preposterous that lawmakers would think ethics training is beneath them, and that’s what basically what Sessions is saying.
Theoretically anyone working in politics has a background that makes them aware of a their obligations and responsibilities, yet lawmakers think their staffers should go through mandatory training. If their staffers are doing it, they should too. It’s arrogant to say that simply because they were elected as a lawmaker, they naturally know the ins and outs of ethical behavior, but the staff somehow doesn’t.
Everyone in Congress should receive ethics training—there’s not a good reason to resist it, but there’s a mountain of evidence saying they all need it.