This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. And the opportunity for our members of Congress to open their new session with some welcome Utah exceptionalism came and went Monday in a most ignominious fashion.

The entire House delegation from Utah — Republicans Rob Bishop, Chris Stewart, Mia Love and Jason Chaffetz — joined a majority of their GOP colleagues Monday in voting to defang the Office of Congressional Ethics. Not because the title of that organization amounts to an oxymoron. Even though, with the step that was taken in closed session on a national holiday, it may.

Within hours, public outcry forced the Republicans, who had already gone against the wishes of Speaker Paul Ryan in moving against the OCE, to walk back their action.

Not withdrawn, unhappily, was a lesser-known rule change put forward by Bishop, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, a change that is designed to make it easier for the federal government to give land to state, local or tribal governments.

The old rule required congressional accountants to tote up the revenue that would be lost to the federal government — grazing fees, mineral royalties, etc. — whenever land changed hands. The new rule specifically removes that requirement.

Clearly, that's a way to grease the skids for any future move to unload acres of public land. That bad idea is something that quickens the heart of Bishop and other Utah politicians but, hopefully, is not known to be a priority for President-elect Donald Trump or his choice to head the Interior Department, Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke.

Trump won much of the media credit for the House Republicans' decision to leave the OCE alone — for now — because his Twitter account is apparently the center of the universe these days. Other reporting, though, emphasized that riled up Democrats and some old-fashioned angry phone calls from constituents that motivated the reversal.

There have reportedly been complaints from Republicans and Democrats alike that the OCE has a bit of a hair-trigger when it comes to opening ethics investigations against members of Congress. That may be a good reason for reform. Or to keep it in place so that some members of Congress may know what it feels like to have the government breathing down your neck.

But acting in closed session, on a day when most Americans and not a few journalists might be expected to be paying more attention to college football and holiday hangovers, smacks not of reform, but of corruption.