Update 638 — House Democrats OfferCongressional Stock Trading Ban Bill After months of negotiations, House Democrats yesterday introduced legislation, the Combating Financial Conflicts of Interest in Government Act, to impose the tightest restrictions yet on trading stocks by senior government officials, members of Congress, and their families. The bill may go to the House Rules …
Update 632 — STOCK 2.0 Working GroupOffers Principles; Congress Urged to Act Late yesterday, a bipartisan working group of House members published a letter to House Administration Committee Chair Zoe Lofgren outlining provisions the group seeks in a compromise STOCK 2.0 bill. As the fall legislative session begins in earnest for Congress in the next …
Update 625 — Salvaging Democracy:A Clarifying Sliver of Election Reform After the eventful news this week, GDP down 0.9 percent in the second quarter, CHIPS passing both chambers, and the new reconciliation package – the Inflation Reduction Act – introduced, we turn to a similarly signal development last week as a bipartisan Senate working group …
Update 600 — MOC Stock Trading:Public Trust and the Public Interest Voters say, overwhelmingly, that members of Congress should be banned from trading stocks while in office, as MOCs receive privileged and tradable information that average Americans don’t. The policies currently in place to provide transparency regarding MOC stock trading get inadequate compliance and provide penalties that don’t deter insider …
Update 594 — Beyond Voting Rights:Bills So We Don’t Get Trumped Again Since January 6, 2021, Democrats have been clamoring to protect democratic practices and institutions with federal legislation. Eager to whitewash themselves of the shame of that date, some Republicans are supporting the Electoral Count Act. The bill’s reforms propose a narrow set of fixes, insufficient for …
Update 582 — The Millionaire Majority:Stock Trades on Hill, MOCs on the Take Surprised to learn that a majority of members of Congress are millionaires? In fact, the median net worth of members of Congress who filed disclosures is now just over $1 million. Then maybe it’s not surprising that the STOCK Act — the law passed in …
Update 581 — The Fight to Vote, 2022:Whither the Defense of Democracy? The one-year anniversary party for the Biden presidency was crashed by last night’s Senate showdown, ending in failed attempts to pass voting rights legislation and to reform the Senate filibuster rule. Indeed, that failure, said to be impossible, dooms more than just the Freedom to Vote: …
Update 578 — Infamous AnniversaryCalls for Accountability and Reform If the GOP is right and there was an insurrection on November 3, 2020, it succeeded in removing incumbent President Trump decisively. In truth, the only (unsuccessful) insurrection attempted on January 6, 2021, perpetuated by Trump himself, the incumbent bent on staying in power. A year after an attack …
Update 577 — That a Byrd up in the Sky?Parliamentarian to Say What Flies or Dies Yesterday, the Senate Parliamentarian denied Senate Democrats’ most recent attempt to include immigration reform in Build Back Better via the Byrd Rule. In fairness, half of the current Senate will be disappointed with any Parliamentarian’s decision. Nevertheless, she will persist, applying the Byrd …
Update 576 — Restoration and Reform:Battles Ahead for American Democracy President Biden’s Summit for Democracy last week was a cause for introspection: is the United States perfecting, protecting, or peeling back democratic rights? Republican-controlled states, particularly swing states like Georgia and Arizona, continue to adopt laws suppressing the vote. Congress has yet to pass federal voting legislation. …
