You don’t need us to tell you that the Trump administration has been a disaster for government ethics.
Reforms like these should be a no-brainer:
1. End misuse of government offices for private gain by expanding recusal rules and requiring all high level executive branch officials to divest their financial interests.
(we’re looking at you, Wilbur Ross, Louis DeJoy, Ryan Zinke and Marc Short)
2. Give the Office of Government Ethics more power to actually enforce ethics laws, or create a different centralized office that can do so.
3. Put all ethics records online and make them public and searchable.
4. Rebuild inspector general offices so that they can investigate executive branch abuses, and can’t be fired unless there’s actually a legitimate reason to fire them.
5. Add more details to financial disclosure reports. Remember Trump’s mysterious debts? That can’t be allowed to happen again.
6. Require cabinet level officials to release their tax returns (obviously, the president and VP, too).
7. CREATE REAL CONSEQUENCES FOR VIOLATING THE HATCH ACT. We’re talking $50,000 fines.
If you’ve been frustrated by feeble ethics laws during the Trump era, there’s a good chance we’ve got a solution. Read them here: citizensforethics.org/reports-invest…
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Fixing ethical problems in Washington doesn't end with the White House. Congress needs an ethics overhaul. Here's how to do it:
1. Angry that Members of Congress and their spouses are getting rich from curiously timed stock trades? Let’s ban them from trading stocks.
2. If we really want to deal with the problem, let’s also ban Members of Congress and their senior staff from holding individual stocks.
3. Many Members of Congress are outrageously rich, but we don’t know much about their holdings beyond that. We need to require more in depth financial disclosures.
President Trump has claimed that he’s the most transparent president in history. His administration’s secrecy about who visits the White House, abuse of security classifications and recordkeeping failures prove that’s a lie.
Here’s how to fix what he’s broken:
1. Create clear enforcement measures for the Presidential and Federal Records Acts so there can be real consequences for law breaking (like failing to create records that could link families separated at the border).
2. Ban the use of apps that automatically delete messages for government work. Remember Jared Kushner’s WhatsApp messages with Mark Zuckerberg and MBS?
Our elections have become a competition for money almost as much as they are a competition for votes. It’s time to change that. Here’s how: citizensforethics.org/reports-invest…
1. Limit undisclosed political spending by passing the DISCLOSE Act and the Stand By Every Ad Act. Pass the Honest Ads Act to address ads on the internet.
2. Empower ordinary Americans to be heard over big money by funding small-dollar matching programs for federal elections.
Every day for nearly four years now, you’ve been reading bad news from the most corrupt administration in recent memory. We wouldn’t blame you for being exhausted, so here’s some good news for your timeline.
CREW got three huge wins for accountability in just one afternoon:
After we filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel about the Interior Department apparently creating pro-Trump propaganda, OSC told us today that they opened a case file on the matter. citizensforethics.org/legal-action/l…
CREW sued the State Department for records about Mike Pompeo’s notorious “Madison Dinners,” taxpayer-funded dinners that appear to be an effort to boost his political ambitions.
We need checks and balances that actually work. Trump has shown us why every single day of his presidency.
Here's how to make that happen:
1. Congress should create real consequences for ignoring subpoenas. Even in Trump’s impeachment inquiry, people like Mick Mulvaney, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Pompeo simply defied subpoenas.
2. Create a fast-track procedure for Congress to carry out investigations. Stonewalling Don McGahn’s testimony and in the Mazars case about Trump’s tax returns show why this can’t go on.
Here’s a radical idea: Let’s hold presidents accountable to the people.
Here’s how:
1. Require presidential (and VP) candidates to release their tax returns
2. Require those candidates to make a plan to divest from all conflicting assets
3. Empower OGE to enforce divestiture -- and quickly -- within 30 days
4. Make the Emoluments Clauses of the Constitution more easily enforceable, so any future president couldn’t run out the clock on facing justice for his corruption