Lawmakers’ financial conflicts of interest

 

February 12, 2022

This week on Capitol Hill we saw more momentum behind legislation to limit the ability of members of Congress to own and trade stocks. POGO had already thrown its weight behind two bills, one introduced by Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) and Chip Roy (R-TX) and another introduced by Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ). Both bills would ban stock trading for members of Congress and their spouses. As conversation grew about the need to reduce lawmakers’ financial conflicts of interest by limiting their stock ownership, more lawmakers came forward with proposals this week. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Steve Daines (R-MT), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) introduced legislation this week that would ban lawmakers and their spouses from owning individual stocks. This goes a bit further than the previous bills, which stop short of an outright ban on owning stocks. Crucially, leadership in Congress appears to be making this a priority. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) this week asked senators to produce a single bill to address stock trading and said he hoped the Senate would act on the matter soon. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said he was open to legislation on stock trading. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who previously opposed efforts to ban members from trading stocks, also came out this week in support of legislation to address congressional stock ownership. Now we’ll be working to ensure that a final bill includes the provisions needed to ensure lawmakers truly cannot trade stocks. INVESTIGATION Homeland Security’s Embattled Watchdog Faces Probe Homeland Security’s top watchdog, Joseph Cuffari, faces a previously undisclosed and escalating investigation into whether he illegally “retaliated” against his internal critics. Read More LETTER Coalition Calls for Transparency in DOT&E’s Annual Weapons Testing Report A broad coalition of organizations from across the ideological spectrum urges the Director of Operational Test & Evaluation to include all unclassified information in their public annual report. Read More QUOTE OF THE WEEK “When a tech like facial recognition doesn’t work, which it disproportionately doesn’t for women and people of color, then there’s a human cost, and that cost is augmented when these types of backup systems fail.” Jake Laperruque, Senior Policy Counsel, in the Verge OVERHEARD ONE LINERS “I’m glad this [push to ban insider trading] is happening. ... And if it’s happening because people see political opportunities and advantages of doing it, that’s OK as long as we end up with strong policy.” Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, Government Affairs Manager, in Business Insider   “We have a court that, by my assessment, is essentially comprised of too few people who hold too much power for too long. So reforms need to address those structural deficiencies.” Sarah Turberville, Director of The Constitution Project at POGO, on Wisconsin Public Radio   “Calculating the cost of an F-35 is always a bit of a challenge.” Dan Grazier, Jack Shanahan Military Fellow, in Vice   “I have a hard time justifying both the award and how Mr. Cruzan was going to be able to perform on this contract in an objective way due to the fact that he had been in offices that were involved with the BIA's detention centers.” Scott Amey, General Counsel and Executive Editorial Director, in NPR   “The biggest danger is that some senators opposed to meaningful reform will try to water down these bills.” Walt Shaub, Senior Ethics Fellow, in Business Insider

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