Former members join the chorus calling to end congressional stock trading

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Justin Papp | (TNS) CQ-Roll Call

A group of former members of Congress wants action before the end of this session on legislation barring lawmakers from owning or trading individual stocks.

The former lawmakers, organized by Issue One, a Washington-based political reform group, on Monday sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., calling for a floor vote on a proposal that advanced out of committee in July. Specifically, the group calls for the legislation to be tacked on to any “must pass” package Congress will take up in the waning days of the 118th Congress.

“Members of Congress are public servants. We want to uphold public service and we want to be more aspirational in what that means,” said Zach Wamp, a Tennessee Republican who served in the House from 1995 to 2011. “So disconnect yourself from any appearance of wrongdoing. And this has the appearance of wrongdoing.”

Wamp is one of more than 40 former members and officials who signed the letter. Schumer and McConnell did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

The issue picked up intensity in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when a series of questionable trades by lawmakers who’d been briefed on the global health emergency drew the attention of the public and federal regulators.

Recent efforts to address such trading have fallen flat, but the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s vote to advance a measure gave new hope to those who support stricter rules.

Tim Roemer, an Indiana Democrat who spent more than a decade in the House in the 1990s and early 2000s, signed on in part because of a perception among voters that members of Congress are “out for themselves.”

“Disclosure and transparency of stocks is simply not enough,” said Roemer, who was the U.S. ambassador to India after leaving Congress. “Insider knowledge, too often, is translated into insider benefit. And public service is not about private profit.”

Federal law already prohibits members from trading on nonpublic information and mandates the public disclosure of assets. But critics argue that the 2012 law lacks teeth. Its punishments are trivial — if applied at all — and members of Congress have continued to participate in the stock market in large numbers. More than half of all representatives and senators owned stocks in the 117th Congress, according to a Campaign Legal Center analysis.

The bipartisan proposal advanced out of committee this summer would significantly tighten existing rules.

Built on a bill led by Sen. Jeff Merkley, dubbed the Ending Trading and Holdings in Congressional Stocks (ETHICS) Act, it was a product of compromise between the Oregon Democrat and Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., and Gary Peters, D-Mich.

“We have momentum on our side to pass the ETHICS Act,” Merkley said in a statement Monday. “And the support of former members provides added fuel. They see the corrupt impact of stock trading, and I appreciate their support and advocacy.”

The legislation as amended would ban members of Congress, as well as the president and vice president, from buying and selling securities, commodities, futures, options, trusts and other comparable holdings. It would require divestiture from all covered assets and impose harsh penalties on members who fail to divest.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who is one of the wealthiest senators and isn’t seeking reelection, said the bill was too harsh and could disincentive qualified candidates to run for office. Roemer — who remembered owning stocks in individual companies while in Congress, but said none exceeded $1,000 in value — didn’t entirely disagree.

Roemer, like Romney, called the bill punitive. But he said he didn’t have concerns that it would turn away prospective public servants.

“I do think that once, hopefully, we pass this, that there might be some ways to learn from what’s happening in Congress and how it’s cleaned things up and to amend it later on,” Roemer said. “But we have to start with something, and I think this is the right place to start, given how far the pendulum has swung … and the American people’s eroding trust in institutions.”

Wamp referred to a July 2023 survey conducted by the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy that found 87% of Republicans and 88% of Democrats favored a proposal to bar members from owning or trading stocks in individual companies (though the proposal polled included a provision allowing qualified blind trusts).

“Very, very rarely does any issue ever poll at 87% and 88% support among Democrats and Republicans,” Wamp said. “This is one of those things that could be done simply, quickly and help the Congress help themselves.”

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©2024 CQ-Roll Call, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Visit cqrollcall.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Trump unveils crypto project, says US should dominate sector

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Olga Kharif and Stephanie Lai | (TNS) Bloomberg News

Donald Trump headlined an event billed as the unveiling of a crypto platform promoted by the Republican nominee and his sons, putting the spotlight on a niche digital-asset sector with a history of controversy.

The project, World Liberty Financial, will be part of the decentralized finance segment of digital assets and is supposed to help with financial security and being able to transact freely, Trump’s son Donald Jr. said in an X Spaces livestream on Monday.

“It’s a real problem that needed to be addressed, and honestly I think this is the way,” Donald Jr. said after comments from his father. The launch came a day after the former president emerged unscathed from a second apparent assassination attempt, the latest shock to roil the presidential contest.

The Republican nominee has pivoted to courting the digital-asset sector in search of donations and votes amid a tight race for the White House, even vowing to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet.” His stance is an about-face given that he previously denounced Bitcoin as a “scam.”

On the goal of becoming the key crypto hub, Donald Trump said: “If we don’t do it, China is going to do it. China is doing it anyway. But if we don’t do it, we’re not going to be the biggest, and we have to be the biggest and the best.”

Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Jr. began promoting World Liberty Financial on X and Telegram in recent weeks. Decentralized finance — or DeFi — is an arcane crypto sector, where people trade, lend and borrow digital assets peer-to-peer using automated software.

“The effort is consistent with Trump’s pro-crypto policy stance,” said Campbell Harvey, a finance professor at Duke University. “It’s one thing to say you are pro-crypto, and other to launch a company in the space.”

The former president’s profile may make many more people aware of DeFi, proponents of which often claim gains in efficiency resulting from cutting out traditional intermediaries like banks. Critics argue the sector rests in a regulatory gray zone and is prone to hacks, a bugbear for crypto as a whole.

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©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Speaker Johnson sets House vote on government funding bill after a one-week postponement

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By KEVIN FREKING

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Mike Johnson will move ahead with a temporary spending bill that would prevent a partial government shutdown when the new budget year begins on Oct. 1, despite the headwinds that prompted him to pull the bill from consideration last week.

The bill includes a requirement that people registering to vote must provide proof of citizenship, which has become a leading election-year priority for Republicans raising the specter of noncitizens voting in the U.S., even though it’s already illegal to do so and research has shown that such voting is rare.

“I urge all of my colleagues to do what the overwhelming majority of the people of this country rightfully demand and deserve — prevent non-American citizens from voting in American elections,” Johnson said Tuesday.

Johnson told reporters he was not ready to discuss an alternative plan to keep the government funded other than what will come before the House on Wednesday.

“I’m not having any alternative conversations. That’s the play. It’s an important one. And I’m going to work around the clock to try and get it done,” Johnson said.

The legislation faces an uphill climb in the House and has no chance in the Senate. The vast majority of Democrats oppose it, and some Republicans do, too, but for different reasons.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the only way to prevent a government shutdown was for both sides to work together on an agreement. He said the House vote announced by Johnson was doomed to fail.

“The only thing that will accomplish is make clear that he’s running into a dead end,” Schumer said. “We must have a bipartisan plan instead.”

The legislation would fund agencies at current levels while lawmakers work out their differences on a full-year spending agreement.

Democrats, and some Republicans, are pushing for a short extension. A temporary fix would allow the current Congress to hammer out a final bill after the election and get it to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.

But Johnson and some of the more conservative members of his conference are pushing for a six-month extension in the hopes that Republican nominee Donald Trump will win the election and give them more leverage when crafting the full-year bill.

Schumer said a six-month measure would shortchange the Pentagon and other government agencies that need more certainty about funding levels.

“You simply cannot run the military with six-month stopgaps,” Schumer said.

Johnson said last week that he was not giving up on his proposal just yet and would be working through the weekend to build support. He said ensuring that only U.S. citizens vote in federal elections is “the most pressing issue right now and we’re going to get this job done.”

On Sunday, he traveled to Florida to meet with Trump, who had earlier seemingly encouraged a government shutdown if Republicans “don’t get assurances on Election Security.” Trump said on the social media platform Truth Social that they should not go forward with a stopgap bill without such assurances.

The House approved a bill with the proof of citizenship mandate back in July. Some Republicans who view the issue as popular with their constituents have been pushing for another chance to show their support for the measure. Still, other Republicans are expected to vote no because they view the spending in the bill as excessive.

I-94 ramp, lane closures begin Wednesday between Oakdale and Woodbury

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A series of traffic shifts and ramp closures on Interstate 94 between Oakdale and Woodbury will begin Wednesday as the final stage of pavement resurfacing starts, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

Construction crews will reduce eastbound I-94 between Minnesota Highway 120/Century Avenue and Woodbury Drive/Keats Avenue N to a single lane at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, which will run until early Thursday morning when it opens up to three lanes until October.

Also starting 7 p.m. Wednesday, eastbound I-94 ramps to and from Radio Drive/Inwood Avenue N and to and from Woodbury Drive/Keats Avenue N will be closed until Saturday morning while construction crews pave the road that connects the ramps.

The final closure includes the ramp from northbound Interstate 494 to eastbound I-94 and the ramp from eastbound I-94 to southbound I-494. MnDOT expects these interchange ramps to reopen in the middle of October.

Several ramps will be reopening this week. The eastbound I-94 to northbound I-694 and southbound I-494 to eastbound I-94 ramps will reopen to traffic at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. Also, the Tamarack Road to southbound I-494 and northbound I-494 to Tamarack Road traffic ramps are projected to reopen by end of day Friday.

All construction projects are weather dependent and subject to change at any time.

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