After Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) angered the D.C. Council by proposing legislation in late October that would require background checks for senior D.C. government officials, councilmembers moved today on their own version of the legislation that would prevent many of the hiring scandals that have plagued Mayor Vince Gray this year.

The legislation sponsored by Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) requires political appointees to complete credit and background checks, would lower the number of appointees altogether and make nepotism illegal. It comes in the wake of a 47-page report she published in August after a number of hearings on how exactly hiring went so wrong so quickly in the early months of Gray’s tenure.

After Issa introduced his version of the legislation — which followed his own investigation into the Sulaimon Brown affair — D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown was able to talk him down by arguing that the council was working on its own, stronger version of the same proposal.