Justice Brett Kavanaugh said Thursday that the Supreme Court is working on “concrete steps” to address ethics issues at the high court amid an array of recent news stories on justices’ travel and relationships with political donors.

Appearing before an audience of judges and lawyers during a judicial conference in Ohio, Kavanaugh noted that Chief Justice John Roberts had pledged in May to assure the public that the court was committed to adhering to the highest standards of conduct.

“The chief justice spoke about that in May and said that we are continuing to work on those issues and that is accurate,” Kavanaugh told the audience. “We are continuing to work on those issues and I’m hopeful that there will be some concrete steps taken soon on that.”