New Congress starts with ethics panel flip-flop

The new GOP era in Washington got off to a messy start on Tuesday as House Republicans, under pressure from President-elect Donald Trump, abruptly dropped plans to gut an independent congressional ethics board.

The dizzying about-face came as lawmakers convened for the first day of the 115th Congress, an occasion normally reserved for pomp and ceremony under the Capitol Dome.

Instead, House Republicans found themselves under attack not only from Democrats but from their new president, over their secretive move Monday to neuter the independent Office of Congressional Ethics and place it under lawmakers' control.

GOP leaders scrambled to contain the damage, and within hours of Trump registering his criticism on Twitter, they called an emergency meeting at which House Republicans voted without opposition to undo the change.

The episode, coming even before the new Congress was convened and lawmakers were sworn in, was a powerful illustration of the sway Trump may hold over his party in a Washington that will be fully under Republican control for the first time in a decade.

GOP lawmakers who've felt unfairly targeted by the ethics office had defied their own leaders with their initial vote to neuter the body, but once Trump weighed in, they backpedaled immediately.

Also on Tuesday, House lawmakers easily re-elected Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as their speaker. The House will number 241 Republicans and 194 Democrats; among the members are 52 freshmen.

"With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it may be, their number one act and priority," Trump had asked over Twitter on Tuesday morning, in an objection that appeared focused more on timing than on substance.

Trump, who will take office in a little more than two weeks, said the focus should be on tax reform and health care, and he included the hash-tag #DTS, for "Drain the Swamp."