On Tuesday, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) unveiled the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act, a sweeping piece of legislation that takes aim at “both the appearance and the potential for financial conflicts of interest” among those working for the government. Among other measures, the legislation would completely overhaul the current state of lobbying by imposing a lifetime ban on lobbying by Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Members of Congress, and Cabinet Secretaries.
Announcing the legislation at the National Press Club, Senator Warren emphasized that the bill is not just a reaction to the series of ethics violations by members of the Trump Administration, but a way of addressing the continual decline of trust in the government among American citizens.
“The problem is far bigger than Trump,” Senator Warren said, “Since Watergate, generation after generation of politicians have attacked the very idea that our government can do anything right.”
Although Senator Warren said that the legislation is not about Trump, many of its clauses address conflicts of interest that are specific to his administration. For example, Title I of the legislation would require both the President and the Vice President to “place conflicted assets, including businesses, into a blind trust to be sold off.” This would directly affect the President’s decision to put his assets into a trust that is managed by his sons. Former Director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub Jr., described this method of asset management as “not even halfway blind.”
The legislation would also require the IRS to release the tax returns for “Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates from the previous 8 years and during each year in federal elected office.” Trump is famously the first president in the modern era who has not released any of his tax returns.
From the perspective of whistleblowers and their advocates, this legislation would provide significant support in their efforts to increase governmental transparency. As a supporter of science whistleblowers, the Government Accountability Project is keenly aware of various agencies’ repeated attempts to suppress peer-reviewed research in favor of biased and inaccurate science. When the FDA under the Bush Administration failed to approve Plan B for over-the-counter sales, Susan Wood, head of the FDA’s Office of Women’s Health, resigned and blew the whistle on the FDA’s misleading claim that the science behind Plan B was still unresolved. Senator Warren’s legislation would take action against this type of politically biased misrepresentation of science by requiring “individuals and corporations to disclose funding or editorial conflicts of interest in research submitted to agencies that is not publicly available in peer-reviewed publications.”
The Act would also establish the U.S. Office of Public Integrity as an independent entity tasked with investigating potential federal ethics violations through subpoena authority, a power that the Inspectors General and U.S. Office of Government Ethics currently lack. This new piece of legislation would provide an additional avenue for oversight and lessen the ability that partisan politics currently has to obscure the truth in cases such as the DHS’s mistreatment of detained children. The Government Accountability Project, on behalf of DHS whistleblowers Dr. Pamela McPherson and Dr. Scott Allen, has continually advocated for a congressional investigation into child detention centers. Since Congress is currently only able to issue subpoenas through a committee majority, members of the committee are able to block subpoenas, and thereby halt investigations, purely for political purposes. However, subpoena authority allows this new independent agency to hold officials accountable and conduct thorough investigations into suspected ethics violations.
Finally, by streamlining the process of obtaining information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the legislation would allow private citizens and the press to keep the government accountable. Although FOIA allows any individual to request federal records, the process of obtaining requested documents can be lengthy and cumbersome. However, the legislation would prioritize the accessibility of information to which the public is legally entitled.
The far-reaching nature of the legislation will undoubtedly make it a difficult sell on the Senate floor. According to the Center for Responsible Politics, lobbyists spent 9.2 million dollars on Congressional Democrats and 10.9 million dollars on Congressional Republicans. Nonetheless, in the face of widespread corruption, a lack of transparency, and an administration that is increasingly hostile to oversight, Senator Warren’s efforts are an admirable step towards sustaining a national conversation regarding ethical norms.