Anna Moneymaker/Getty

Despite Biden’s Efforts on Ethics, Some Observers Say More Safeguards Are Needed

“We’re in kind of a post-Watergate era right now,” said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, government affairs manager at the Project on Government Oversight. “I think that’s exactly the time you want to do something like a reform of government ethics.”

During his first year in office, President Biden has successfully implemented some ethics-related policies, but outside observers think that is not enough to safeguard against future abuses of power. 

In October 2019, then-candidate Biden released a plan on how he would “restore ethics in government” if elected, which came amid the first impeachment inquiry into President Trump’s handling of funds to Ukraine. That was just one instance that experts and Democratic lawmakers pointed to when arguing the Trump administration did not adhere to government ethics, accountability, oversight and transparency.

“[President Biden] instituted an ethics pledge, which was consistent with what he put in his campaign promises,” said Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel for the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. 

“The handling and clearing [of] nominees and appointees for conflicts of interest at the highest level, I think they’ve done very well,” as documented by CREW, Canter said, while also acknowledging there were not the same high-profile alleged conflicts of interest as seen under the Trump administration, such as with the Commerce and Education department secretaries and Trump himself.  “But that’s not enough to guard against future abuses by future administrations. We need to strengthen our institutions and the only way to really do that is through legislation and it’s got to be also expanded to the legislative and judicial branches.” 

Canter noted that much of what Biden indicated he’d be interested in is now included in different bills, such as the Protecting Our Democracy Act passed by the House on Dec. 9. Provisions of the bill, such as on inspectors general independence and protecting whistleblowers, would “tighten up some of the problems that occurred during the Trump administration.” 

Ongoing Legislative Efforts Aim to Tighten Ethics and Accountability Policies

The office of Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who is leading efforts to enact the bill, in the House, said the act is the “ third pillar of the 117th Congress’ efforts to protect, support, and restore the people’s faith in America’s democratic systems – complementing both H.R. 1, the For the People Act, and H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.” 

The bill also has several provisions for bolstering the Hatch Act, which limits the partisan political activity of government employees. 

Violations of the Hatch Act were “a significant problem in the last administration,” so penalties for violating the act, “need to be strengthened,” Canter said. Additionally, “we need to make more institutional reforms to give [the Office of Special Counsel]” more authority, referring to a report OSC released in November saying at least 13 senior Trump administration officials violated the Hatch Act in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, particularly surrounding the Republican convention as well as its seven enforcement challenges, such as that it can’t enforce the subpoenas it issues. 

“There is a criminal provision of the Hatch Act that we haven’t seen [the Justice Department]” use,” Canter explained. Her organization sent a complaint to top Justice officials after that report came out calling for a criminal investigation into Trump, former ​acting ​Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf; and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. 

In a related manner, on Wednesday, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., introduced a bill that would strengthen the Hatch Act as well as create an inspector general position for the Office of Special Counsel, among other things. Reps. Bill Pascrell, Jr., D-N.J., and Mike Quigley, D-Ill., first introduced the legislation in the House.

One Expert says Biden’s Changes are Good but not Good Enough

Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, government affairs manager at the Project on Government Oversight, said the Biden administration “has done a fairly good job” with its compliance plan, meaning “complying with the existing matrix of ethics rules and laws that are on the books and have been on the books and were on the books prior to the last administration.”

This is good, but not good enough to prevent future abuses, he said. Hedtler-Gaudette thinks the administration needs to work more with Congress in order to codify ethics reforms and use more political capital to do so. He said the “statement of administrative policy” the White House released in December on the Protect Our Democracy Act was “weak.” 

Specific reforms Hedtler-Gaudette would like to see are the criminal conflicts of interest statute applied to the president and vice president, provisions of the ethics pledge (which he previously said was “the strongest ethics executive order ever issued”) codified and more done to tamp down the revolving door between industry and government.  

Also, “where is the Commission on Federal Ethics, or even a proposal for it?” Hedtler-Gaudette asked, referencing  the campaign promise Biden made to propose and pass legislation creating an agency to oversee and enforce laws on anti-corruption and ethics. He also raised concerns about “how many top Pentagon officials [Biden] appointed came straight from the defense industry or consultancies with deep foreign entanglements (think West Exec).” 

West Exec Advisors, founded in 2017, was the “secretive consulting firm” that looked like Biden’s “government-in-waiting,” Politico reported in November 2020. 

“We’re in kind of a post-Watergate era right now in some ways and I think that’s exactly the time you want to do something like a reform of government ethics,” Hedtler-Gaudette said. In the wake of the Watergate scandal, the 1978 Inspector General Act, establishing the first 12 IG positions at agencies, and the Ethics in Government Act, were enacted, among other good government reforms. 

 Government Observers Continue Making Recommendations for Reform 

Open the Government, a nonpartisan coalition that works to strengthen democracy and increase government accountability, released a report last month, building on a previous one, that has recommendations on improving government accountability and transparency. For ethics specifically, it recommends: establishing an inspector general within the Office of Government Ethics to oversee the White House; appointing a “public facing ethics official” to improve public communications on ethics-related issues; and Congress codifying Biden’s ethics pledge for appointees. CREW and POGO were among the organizations that signed on to the recommendations. 

Open the Government's previous report, released in November 2020, gave 46 recommendations for the administration and Congress, of which five have been implemented and two have been partially implemented, according to a progress report

The White House did not respond to requests for comment. However, in a fact-sheet released on Dec. 8, the White House said, “since day one, the administration has worked to earn and keep the trust of Americans by cracking down on corruption and promoting an accountable and transparent government that works for the people, from  requiring all appointees to take a stringent ethics pledge, to releasing the President’s and Vice-President’s taxes, to issuing policies to restore DOJ’s independence.”

It also said the Biden administration “will continue working with Congress to restore democratic guardrails to prevent future abuses of presidential power and curtail corruption, with legislation that is consistent with our constitutional principles and that appropriately addresses the balance of powers between the three branches of our federal government.” 

More recently, Biden’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration made “major ethics concessions” to Sen. Warren to secure his confirmation, Politico reported on Monday. The Biden administration has been without a permanent FDA head, which has been a subject of controversy and concern during the ongoing pandemic response. 

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.