Boustany Votes to Slash Funding for Office of Congressional Ethics

Press Release

As was reported by the Times Picayune, on Tuesday afternoon Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) and members of his official congressional staff were caught on FacebookLive having strategic discussions regarding the Louisiana Senate race. In the course of these discussions, comments were directed at both Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) and State Treasurer John Kennedy (R-LA).

Just last week, though, Rep. Boustany was one of just 137 members of Congress to vote to slash funding for the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), a congressional watchdog that is tasked with holding members of Congress accountable for upholding the high ethical standards voters demand. Rep. Boustany voted in favor of H.Amdt. 1173 (Roll Call #292) that would have reduced funding for the Office of Congressional Ethics. Reps. Fleming, Scalise, Graves and Richmond voted against the cuts to OCE. The amendment failed 137-270.

Matt Beynon, Fleming for Senate Communications Director, said: "Rep. Boustany routinely votes against 1% cuts offered on appropriation bills, but was ready to slash the independent congressional ethics office 12% from the proposed Republican budget, the one outside group that investigates member wrong-doing. That's the kind of Washington cartel thinking that Louisianans are tired of. Just how pervasive were these practices in his office? To have a randomly captured video depicting nearly nothing but campaign dialog in the entire clip indicates it must be a common occurrence. "Ethically-challenged' only begins to describe these bad judgments."

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