We have an Ethics Czar? [View all]

Senate confirms Biden’s ethics czar, who will remain under Trump
Senate Democrats use dwindling floor time to confirm a new head for the government's ethics office, with whom Trump administration often butted heads in his first term.

The Senate on Thursday confirmed President Biden’s nominee to serve as head of the Office of Government Ethics in a 50-46 vote, giving him a term that will last through President-elect Trump’s tenure.

David Huitema, currently a State Department ethics official, will now serve in the governmentwide ethics czar role in a five-year term. Senate Democrats sought to prioritize his confirmation in the waning days of the Biden administration and their control of the chamber before Trump’s inauguration, as the former and future president once again brings with him to the Oval Office a bevy of potential conflicts of interest.

Bringing Huitema’s role more into the foreground is Trump’s decision to so far refuse to sign agreements with the Biden administration, and the ethics agreements that go with them, that enable a formal presidential transition to take place. Absent those agreements, Trump’s teams have been unable to deploy into agencies and receive briefings from career staff.

https://www.govexec.com/management/2024/11/senate-confirms-bidens-ethics-czar-who-will-remain-under-trump/401041/