The speaker waited more than four months to constitute the Office of Congressional Conduct, preventing it from investigating lawmakers. He has yet to name enough members to allow it to operate at full strength.
In the first three months of this year, the independent watchdog that investigates members of the House of Representatives received more than 4,000 messages from the public, some accusing lawmakers of serious misconduct.
Not a single one was examined, because Speaker Mike Johnson had yet to constitute the office charged with doing so.
Under House rules, the Office of Congressional Conduct cannot start inquiries, hire staff members or take formal action on public complaints without a board named by the speaker. Mr. Johnson did not do so until this month, the longest delay since the office was created in 2008. And even now, he has yet to install a full complement of board members, hobbling its ability to act.
Mr. Johnson has not explained why he waited until May 13 to empower investigators to begin their work, and his office has not responded to questions about it. But the delay has mired the lone in-house independent overseer of congressional conduct in quicksand at a time when the Trump administration has been conducting a full-scale assault on independent watchdogs within the federal government.
Just days after Mr. Trump was inaugurated, the White House fired 17 inspectors general, the independent officials who investigate abuse and misconduct inside federal agencies. The F.B.I. and the Justice Department have both dismantled or downsized groups that investigate public corruption and fraud. And Mr. Trump dismissed the leaders of two independent agencies charged with good-government oversight — the Office of Government Ethics and the Office of Special Counsel — and placed them under the control of cabinet members in unrelated posts.
