Sen. James Lankford will take over as chairman of the Ethics Committee, succeeding Georgia Republican Johnny Isakson, who will retire at the end of the year, according to a senior Republican aide.The Oklahoma Republican will lead a six-member, bipartisan committee charged with investigating violations of Senate rules. The committee’s most recent actions were in April 2018, when it published a public letter of admonition to Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J.That came after it investigated allegations of sexual misconduct into former Sen. Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, who resigned after those allegations surfaced.The current ethics panel is comprised of Isakson, ranking Democrat Chris Coons of Delaware, Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican, Brian Schatz, a Hawaii Democrat, Jim Risch, an Idaho Republican, and Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat.The House Ethics Committee has traditionally been a more active panel than its Senate counterpart. The Office of Congressional Ethics, a non-partisan, independent entity, vets, investigates and funnels recommendations for investigations to the House Ethics Committee. There is no comparable entity to the OCE for the Senate.Lankford’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
