Dem Suggests House Ethics Oversight on Old Members

A House Democrat is suggesting the House ethics office conduct reviews of fitness to serve for aging lawmakers.

"What I've heard from my neighbors, my community, is this idea that this place is being run by a bunch of staffers," Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., told Axios, pitching her House ethics oversight on lawmakers who have declined with age and have handed many official duties off to staffers. "And we're seeing a very real decline in confidence in Congress.

"It's not a comfortable thing to think about time being irreversible and how our lives change, but," she added, "real respect for our communities and the body here is [being] willing to have these honest, candid, and difficult conversations."

Gluesenkamp Perez, 36, wanted to have her provision added to the House Appropriations Committee's budget for next year, requiring the Office of Congressional Conduct to set standards on members' "ability to perform the duties of office unimpeded by significant irreversible cognitive impairment."

Then ethics investigations could be opened to see if standards are being met by aging and potentially ill members of Congress.

"It's clear people want systemic reform," Gluesenkamp Perez said. "They want accountability."

"If we are going to persist in a system of co-equal branches of government, I think this is a really important question to take up."

The amendment has opponents on both sides of the aisle, including Reps. David Valadao, R-Calif., and Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., as chair and ranking members of the House Subcommittee on Legislative Branch.

Elections every two years are already a periodic check on fitness and there remains "a lot of concern with some of our colleagues sometimes when we see some of their comments," according to Valadao.

Former President Joe Biden's struggles with cognition as the oldest elected and sitting president brought the issue to Gluesenkamp Perez's district, raising "serious concerns" with her constituents "that it was not their elected representatives calling the shots," she told Axios.

Gluesenkamp Perez also supports term limits, but there remains the need to have Congress "impartially evaluate these questions" in a "representative body of all ages and experiences."

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., continues to investigate the Democrats', White House, and media "cover-up" of Biden's cognitive decline.

"It's clear there was a conspiracy to cover up President Biden's cognitive decline after Dr. Kevin O'Connor, Biden's physician and family business associate, refused to answer any questions and chose to hide behind the Fifth Amendment," Comer wrote in a statement last week. "The American people demand transparency, but Dr. O'Connor would rather conceal the truth.

"Dr. O'Connor took the Fifth when asked if he was told to lie about President Biden's health and whether he was fit to be President of the United States. Congress must assess legislative solutions to prevent such a cover-up from happening again. We will continue to interview more Biden White House aides to get the answers Americans deserve."

• Rep. Sessions to Newsmax: White House Staff 'Lied' About Biden
• Biden Aide Williams Testifies in House Autopen Probe