House to vote on sweeping anti-corruption package

[brooklynite]

Source: Axios

The House will vote on a sweeping 571-page bill this week that would strengthen federal ethics laws, expand voting rights and require presidential nominees to release their tax returns.

The big picture: Several Democratic House candidates made the For The People Act, also known has H.R. 1, a hallmark of their 2018 midterm campaigns, and the legislation was formally introduced on the first day of the new Congress.

Why it matters: "We have a broken political system and a corrupt finance system today," Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21 and a longtime proponent of campaign finance reform, told Axios. "H.R. 1 is the most important reform legislation to repair our democracy since the post-Watergate reforms. ... There has never been a bill as broad in its scope and coverage as this bill, and we will work from here."

The bill's key provisions:

Campaign finance: Create a small donor, matching-fund system for congressional and presidential candidates; expand the prohibition of foreign political donations; require super PACs and "dark money" political groups to make their donors public; and restructure the Federal Election Commission.

Read more: https://www.axios.com/house-hr1-anti-corruption-package-vote-a5ce4105-1684-458e-b1b9-4e41cdad70c1.html

[Leghorn21]

1. LET IT RIP, dear gentle men and women!!

Hang tough/rock steady/BRING IT ON

[RKP5637]

2. K&R !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t

[watoos]

3. Kind of like a real "Drain the Swamp Act."

Make America America Again.

[Talitha]

4. K&R... absolutely!!!

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

5. Get rid of exemptions from insider trading laws...

... everyone complains about how much congresscritters are worth.

[Akacia]

9. Wow! Guess I have lived under a rock I really did not know there were exemptions.

Guess I have another topic to research now.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

12. This article came up in a search...

... just google, "are congress members exempt from insider trading". They also made it harder to research or find out if members are making stock trades with insider info, despite Obama signing the STOCK Act.

"A Washington Post editorial called Price “a walking, talking example of the ways in which congressional ethics requirements are too lax.” Sen. Chris Murphy demanded: “Tell me how it can possibly be OK that you were championing positions on health care issues that have the effect of increasing your personal wealth?” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked him, “Doesn’t this show bad judgment?”

But what many saw as a scandal, others saw as an opportunity. On the very day that Wyden was decrying Price’s bad judgment, Rep. Doug Lamborn, Republican of Colorado, bought shares of the same tiny Australian company, Innate Immunotherapeutics. Within two days three more members also bought in — Republicans Billy Long of Missouri, Mike Conaway of Texas and John Culberson of Texas. Conaway added more shares the following week."

[link:https://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/14/congress-stock-trading-conflict-of-interest-rules-238033|

Bloomberg and NPR articles should be right up on top of that search, too.

It is a tangled web. At least some appear to have sold their stocks as the laws got tighter.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. Many get rich from land deals. I don't think "insider trading" laws apply to that. . . . nt

[BigmanPigman]

6. We have needed this for a long time.

Will the Senate pass it though? They are the most corrupt group of criminals.

[True Blue American]

7. No, we will have to wait until

2021 and it is our job to make a clean sweep. Dump all the Republican crooks that have pulled us down into this swamp!

[watoos]

8. Then we will use it as a campaign rallying cry in 2020.

I can still see that squirrel Alito mouthing, "not true" when president Obama explained what would happen when Citizens United passed the SC.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

11. Yes, but Senators will be on record against rights, clarity, and proper regulation. . . . nt

[packman]

13. Roadblock Mitch will have none of that nonsense

He'll huff, he'll puff , he'll blow that bill down.