Bipartisan legislation — like any legislation in the 118th Congress — is a rare thing these days, but Representative James Comer (R-KY) and Representative Katie Porter (D-CA) are proposing something both major parties hope to press on the opposition party when in power: a legal standard of presidential ethics.
To that end, Comer and Porter have introduced a bill that seeks to prevent Presidents and Vice Presidents — and candidates for those positions — from “profiting from their proximity to power.”
Called the Presidential Ethics Reform Act, the bill is drawing cheers from both sides of the aisle and from political centrists like billionaire Mark Cuban, who wrote that he is “all for this.”
All for this. https://t.co/TsilwoQVho
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) May 22, 2024
The bill would require the executive branch occupants to disclose foreign payments, loan transactions, and tax returns for the two years preceding their term and throughout their time in office — and for the two years following their term. Additionally, they must report any gifts valued at over $10,000 received from or by immediate family members.
The bipartisan nature of the agreement doubtlessly stems from Democratic concerns that former Donald Trump routinely flouted the emoluments rules, with his businesses benefitting from his presidency, and from accusations by Republicans that Joe Biden benefited financially during his 8-year tenure as Vice President, a charge Comer, as chair of the House Oversight Committee, has been (so far) fruitlessly trying to make stick for more than a year.
Porter said the transparency the law requires will provide a window for the public to look at their candidates more accurately. In a statement the California Congresswoman said: “Our bipartisan Presidential Ethics Reform Act would let Americans view the tax returns, gifts, and other conflicts of interest of a president, vice president, and their families, empowering the public to evaluate our leaders’ behavior for themselves.”
Many of the comments about the bill jump to the subject of the Supreme Court and its current ethics challenges, as SCOTUS judges still police themselves and aren’t held accountable for what would be punishable breaches of ethics in all the lower U.S. courts. Triggered by the undeclared gifts accepted and unreported by Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) has proposed a similar ethics bill for the Supreme Court.
Whitehouse’s Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act (SCERT) would require Supreme Court justices to “adopt a code of conduct, create a mechanism to investigate alleged violations of the code of conduct and other laws, improve disclosure and transparency when a justice has a connection to a party or amicus before the Court.”