According to a report from The Hill, the Biden White House has been whipping votes against a new bill that would force presidents, vice presidents, and their relatives to disclose foreign income; three Democrat co-sponsors have abandoned the bill.
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) and Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) originally joined forces for the bill and tried to ensure that they garnered support from both sides of the aisle.
Now, Democrat Reps. Ro Khanna (CA), Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL), and Kweisi Mfume (MD) have backed out of co-sponsoring the bill due to pressure from the White House.
“It’s too partisan a tool to cudgel the president as opposed to a serious effort of bipartisan ethics reform,” Khanna told The Hill when asked about his decision to drop off the bill.
“I was excited to come to Washington to introduce my bill. And was proud that I had found three senior Democratic co-sponsors,” Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) explained to the Hill. “I was really disappointed to learn that those co-sponsors had decided not to support the bill and had had conversations with the White House.”
“Mr. Comer and I did extensive publicity about the bill,” she continued. “And [during] all of that publicity … both Mr. Comer and I took great pains to make clear that this is not about any future president, it is about having the right set of rules to restore trust in the executive.”
The bill, if passed into law, would:
– Require top executives to share their tax returns and disclose conflicts of interest
– Require detailing of any loans made to family members
– mRequire the documentation of when immediate relatives join the president on Air Force One
– mRequire whether the relatives’ travel was for business purposes
– Fulfill Rep. James Comer’s pledge to change laws needed to combat influence peddling
And the reasoning behind Mr. Biden’s opposition becomes crystal clear.
