House Democrats have submitted the names of their appointees to serve on the board of a key congressional ethics office, according to a person granted anonymity to share the development.

It’s an important step in the process of getting the Office of Congressional Conduct, formerly known as the Office of Congressional Ethics, up and running.

The nonpartisan independent entity — established in 2008 to receive outside referrals of ethics allegations against House members and staff, investigate the charges and pass along credible complaints to lawmakers — has been lapsed since the start of the new Congress. The board of the office needs to be populated by six members, evenly divided between the two parties, though it can operate with as few as four members, as stipulated by official rules.

Speaker Mike Johnson also must formally approve all board picks to reconstitute the office for the 119th Congress — but so far, he hasn’t selected his people, said another person granted anonymity to speak freely.

Johnson’s spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about his intentions, though Republicans have, since the office’s founding, been deeply critical of its function and numerous times have sought to cut its funding through the appropriations process.

In a sign of how the GOP might be looking for new ways to hamstring the entity, House Republicans under Johnson’s leadership took steps at the beginning of this Congress to change the operations of the office, with the rules package resulting in a name change for the body and requiring the board to come together before the professional staff could be formally appointed. Previously, the staff could operate immediately after the House adopted its rules.

In the meantime, the Office of Congressional Conduct has not been able to launch any new investigations, which is troubling to former Rep. David Skaggs, a Colorado Democrat who for years held leadership roles with the office.

“The internal House Ethics Committee needed to be, if you will, prompted to do its work,” recalled Skaggs, of the reason for forming the office. “So OCE — OCC — serves as that necessary prompt.”

The nonpartisan office has taken on sensitive investigations into Hill ethics issues as of late; notably, its report on Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) recently became public and revealed potential contracts Mills held with the federal government while serving as a member of Congress.

The House has been slow in constituting its internal Ethics Committee, too. Members were only formally appointed in mid-March, and the evenly divided panel is still straining to get out from under the saga that erupted at the end of the last Congress over its handling of an investigation into then-Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon said he plans to introduce a companion bill to the bipartisan Senate legislation aimed at reclaiming Congress’ authority over tariffs, becoming the first House Republican to openly challenge the powers President Donald Trump is using to launch a massive global trade war.

Bacon confirmed his plans to Blue Light News on Friday as market losses continued to pile up and rattle Republicans on Capitol Hill.

The Senate bill introduced Thursday by Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) would limit a president’s power to impose tariffs, including allowing Congress to vote to end any tariff at any time. It would also require the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of imposing any duty and for Congress to explicitly approve any new tariffs within 60 days. Four additional Republicans have signed on as co-sponsors to that bill.

Bacon’s move is a rare step in the deeply Trump-loyal House Republican conference. Speaker Mike Johnson has no plans to bring any legislation limiting Trump’s tariff authority to the House floor, and House Republicans voted for a measure several weeks ago that effectively barred any lawmaker from trying to force a vote to end the president’s emergency declaration he’s used to implement tariffs.

Beyond leadership, most rank-and-file House Republicans have been particularly keen on backing the president, with few voicing much concern about the economic fallout since Wednesday.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) has discussed a potential solution with Speaker Mike Johnson over her push to allow proxy voting for new parents, the congresswoman said in a post on X.

“[Johnson] has called me after POTUS statement and we discussed limiting the vote to just new moms who cannot physically travel in event of emergency,” Luna said in the post. “This is smart.”

President Donald Trump told reporters earlier on Thursday that he endorsed letting new mothers vote by proxy in the House — but ultimately said it was Johnson’s decision. Luna had forced a vote on the issue, which tanked the rest of Johnson’s legislative plans for the week after an attempt to stop her effort through a rule vote.

“I don’t know why it’s controversial,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Thursday, according to a pool report. He added, “I’m going to let the speaker make the decision, but I like the idea.”

Johnson, a former constitutional lawyer facing, is pressure from conservative hard-liners to stop Luna and has argued the practice is unconstitutional. Moments before Luna’s tweet, Johnson shared an op-ed from the Washington Times in opposition to expanding proxy voting in a post on X that has since been deleted.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), one conservative hard-liner against allowing new parents to vote by proxy, responded to Luna’s update that the possible solution is still “unconstitutional” and “wrong” in a post on X.