Will the House of Representatives strengthen the Stock Act, legislation to curb lawmakers and government officials from profitting from their position in government? In the Senate, a strong amendment offered by Senator Sherrod Brown to force members of Congress to either divest from companies that stand to benefit from policymaking or dump their investments into
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Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX) is among the few members of Congress who have not embraced or cosponsored the STOCK Act, a measure to curb insider trading by lawmakers and some federal officials. Smith’s hesitance to back the legislation may relate to his own history of investment. According to records reviewed by Republic Report, Smith, who
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Later today, Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, is hosting a hearing about the purported negative effects of Environment Protection Agency’s (EPA) MACT rules. The new rules, which apply to industrial boilers, would place stricter limits on mercury, dioxin, particulate matter, hydrogen chloride, and carbon monoxide — environmental pollutants known
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Many of the reactions to President Obama’s blessing of his affiliated super PAC, Priorities USA Action, have been predictable. Including, in a sort of Twilight Zone way, Bradley A. Smith, former Federal Elections Commission chairman and founder of the Center for Competitive Politics, a conservative organization that promotes the deregulation of campaign finance law and
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President Obama’s campaign announced late yesterday that it would be encouraging supporters to financially support the Priorities USA Action Super PAC, breaking with previous criticism of Super PACs. The co-founder and senior strategist of Priorities USA Action is former Obama White House aide Bill Burton. Burton has enthusiastically helped lead the organization since its founding
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Last night, President Obama’s campaign manager Jim Messina disappointed reform advocates by announcing that the president has decided to embrace the pro-Democratic Party super PAC, Priorities USA Action. The super PAC was founded by two former White House aides, Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney. The email from Messina, entitled “We Will Not Play By Two
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Today, the Washington Post  — drawing on publicly available data as well as research by conservative author Peter Schweitzer — published an interactive map showing how 33 members of Congress “helped direct more than $300 million in earmarks to dozens of public projects for work in close proximity to commercial and residential real estate owned
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With widespread obesity, heart disease, lung cancer, and other ailments that can result from unhealthy diets continuing to be pressing problems in the United States, freshman Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN) introduced a bill last week to shield food and beverage companies from any government advertising or publicity informing the public about the dangers of consuming
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