How We Can Lock the Political Corruption Revolving Door In California And Washington DC
The NY Times reported: "Ms.
Feinstein and her husband sold $1.5 million to $6 million worth of stock
in Allogene Therapeutics, a California-based biotech company, in
transactions that took place on Jan. 31 and Feb. 18." She did claim
that she has "no involvement in her husband’s financial decisions" to
avoid criticism. Do you really think that she has no idea about
multi-million dollar deals that her husband is involved in?
- A Plan To Increase Public Integrity At The Department of Energy And The U.S. Congress
These are the steps that the public must demand to strengthen public integrity by eliminating corrupt financial conflicts in Congress.
Congress must be ordered to eliminate both the appearance and the
potential for financial conflicts of interest. Americans must be confident
that actions taken by public officials are intended to serve the public,
and not those officials. These actions counter-act the actions taken by
Obama Administration staff and Department of Energy officials in illicit
coordination
with U.S. Senators. In other words, we experienced all of the damages from
each of the abuse-of-power issues listed below. These are the actions
needed to resolve those issues:
- Ban individual stock ownership by Members of Congress, Cabinet
Secretaries, senior congressional staff, federal judges, White House staff
and other senior agency officials while in office. Prohibit all government
officials from holding or trading stock where its value might be
influenced by their agency, department, or actions.
- Apply conflict of interest laws to the President and Vice President
through the Presidential Conflicts of Interest Act, which would require
the President and the Vice President to place conflicted assets, including
businesses, into a blind trust to be sold off
- Require senior Department of Energy government officials, employees, contractors and White House staff to divest from privately-owned assets that could present conflicts, including large companies like Tesla, Google, Facebook, Sony, Netflix, etc., and commercial real estate.
- Make it a felony to not respond to a filing by a citizen within 48
hours. Former White House and Energy Department staff use 'stone-walling'
to intentionally delay responses for a decade, or more.
- Apply ethics rules to all government employees, including unpaid White
House staff and advisors.
- Require most executive branch employees to recuse from all issues that
might financially benefit themselves or a previous employer or client from
the preceding 4 years
- Create conflict-free investment opportunities for federal officials with
new investment accounts managed by the Federal Retirement Thrift
Investment Board and conflict-free mutual funds.
- Close and lock the Revolving Door between industry and government and
stop tech companies from buying influence in the government or profiting
off of the public service of any official.
- Lifetime ban on lobbying by Presidents, Vice Presidents, Members of
Congress, federal judges, and Cabinet Secretaries; and, multi-year bans on
all other federal employees from lobbying their former office, department,
House of Congress, or agency after they leave government service until the
end of the Administration, but at least for 2 years ( and at least 6 years
for corporate lobbyists)
- Limit the ability of companies to buy influence through former
government officials
- Require income disclosures from former senior officials 4 years after
federal employment.
- Prohibit companies from immediately hiring or paying any senior
government official from an agency, department, or Congressional office
recently lobbied by that company
- Prohibit the world’s largest companies, banks, and monopolies (measured
by annual revenue or market capitalization) from hiring or paying any
former senior government official for 4 years after they leave government
service.
- Limit the ability of companies to buy influence through current
government employees
- Prohibit current lobbyists from taking government jobs for 2 years after
lobbying; 6 years for corporate lobbyists. Public, written waivers where
such hiring is in the national interest are allowed for non-corporate
lobbyists only.
- Prohibit corporate outlaws like Google, Tesla, Facebook, Linkedin,
Netflix, Sony, etc., from working in government
by banning the hiring of top corporate leaders whose companies were caught
breaking federal law in the last 6
years
- Prohibit contractor corruption by blocking federal contractor and
licensee employees from working at the agency awarding the contract or
license for 4 years
- Ban “Golden Parachutes” that provide corporate bonuses to executives for
federal service.
- Publicly expose all influence-peddling in Washington.
- Strengthen and expand the federal definition of a “lobbyist” to include
all individuals paid to influence government.
- Create a new “corporate lobbyist” definition to identify individuals
paid to influence government on behalf of for-
profit entities and their front-groups.
- Radically expand disclosure of lobbyist activities and influence
campaigns by requiring all lobbyists to disclose any
specific bills, policies, and government actions they attempt to
influence; any meetings with public officials; and any documents they
provide to those officials
- End Influence-Peddling by Foreign Actors such as that which occurred in
the ENER1, Severstal, Solyndra and related scandals
- Combat foreign influence in Washington by banning all foreign lobbying.
- End foreign lobbying by Americans by banning American lobbyists from
accepting money from foreign governments, foreign individuals, and
foreign companies to influence United States public policy.
- Prohibit current lobbyists from taking government jobs for 2 years after
lobbying; 6 years for corporate lobbyists. Public, written waivers where
such hiring is in the national interest are allowed for non-corporate
lobbyists only.
- End Legalized Lobbyist Bribery and stop lobbyists from trading money
for government favors.
- Ban direct political donations from lobbyists to candidates or Members
of Congress.
- End lobbyist contingency fees that allow lobbyists to be paid for a
guaranteed policy outcome.
- End lobbyist gifts to the executive and legislative branch officials
they lobby
- Strengthen Congressional independence from lobbyists and end
Washington’s dependence on
lobbyists for "expertise" and information.
- Make congressional service sustainable by transitioning Congressional
staff to competitive salaries that track other
federal employees
- Reinstate the nonpartisan Congressional Office of Technology Assessment
to provide critical scientific and technological support to Members of
Congress.
- Level the playing field between corporate lobbyists and government by
taxing excessive lobbying beginning at $500,000 in annual lobbying
expenditures, and use the proceeds to help finance Congressional mandated
rule-making, fund the National Public Advocate, and finance Congressional
support agencies
- De-politicize the rulemaking process and increase transparency of
industry efforts to influence federal agencies.
- Require individuals and corporations to disclose funding or editorial
conflicts of interest in research submitted to agencies that is not
publicly available in peer-reviewed publications.
- Prevent McKinsey-type sham research from undermining the public interest
by requiring that studies that present conflicts of interest to undergo
independent peer review to be considered in the rule-making process
- Require agencies to justify withdrawn public interest rules via public,
written explanations.
- Close loopholes exploited by powerful corporations like Google, Facebook, Tesla, Netflix, Sony, etc., to block public interest actions.
- Eliminate loopholes that allow corporations, like Tesla and Google, to
tilt the rules in their favor and against the public interest.
- Restrict negotiated rule-making to stop industry from delaying or
dominating the rule-making process by ending the practice of inviting
industry to negotiate rules they have to follow.
- Restrict inter-agency review as a tool for corporate abuse by
banning informal review, establishing a maximum 45-
day review period, and blocking closed -door industry lobbying at the
White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
- Limit abusive injunctions from rogue judges, like Jackson, et al, by
ensuring that only Appeals Courts, not individual District Court judges ,
can temporarily block agencies from implementing final rules.
- Prevent hostile agencies from sham delays of implementation and
enforcement by using the presence of litigation to postpone the
implementation of final rules.
- Empower the public to police agencies for corporate capture.
- Increase the ability of the public to make sure their interests are
considered when agencies act
- Create a new Office of the Public Advocate empowered to assist the
public in meaningfully engaging in the rule-making process across the
federal government
- Encourage enforcement by allowing private lawsuits from members of the
public to hold agencies accountable for failing to complete rules or
enforce the law, and to hold corporations accountable for breaking the
rules
- Inoculate government agencies against corporate capture such as Google
undertook against the White House
- Provide agencies with the tools and resources to implement strong rules
that reflect the will of Congress and protect the public.
- Boost agency resources to level the playing field between corporate
lobbyists and federal agencies by using the proceeds of the tax on
excessive lobbying and the anti-corruption penalty fees to help finance
Congress-mandated rule-making and facilitate decisions by agencies that
are buried in an avalanche of lobbyist activity
- Reform judicial review to prevent corporations from gaming the courts by
requiring courts to presumptively defer to agency interpretations of laws
and prohibiting courts from considering sham McKinsey studies and research
excluded by agencies from the rule-making process
- Reverse the Congressional Review Act provision banning related rules
that prevent agencies from implementing the will of Congress based on
Congress’ prior disapproval of a different, narrow rule on a similar topic
- Improve judicial integrity and defend access to justice for all Americans.
- Strengthen Judicial Ethics Requirements.
- Enhance the integrity of the judicial branch by strengthening rules
that prevent conflicts of interest.
- Ban individual stock ownership by federal judges.
- Expand rules prohibiting judges from accepting gifts or payments to
attend private seminars from private individuals and corporations
- Require ethical behavior by the Supreme Court by directing the Court to
follow the Code of Conduct that binds all other federal judges
- Boost the transparency of Federal Courts
- Enhance public insight into the judicial process by increasing
information about the process and reducing barriers to accessing
information.
- Increase disclosure of non-judicial activity by federal judges by
requiring the Judicial Conference to publicly post judges’ financial
reports, recusal decisions, and speeches.
- Enhance public access to court activity by mandating that federal
appellate courts live-stream, on the web, audio of their proceedings,
making case information easily-accessible to the public free of charge,
and requiring federal courts to share case assignment data in bulk.
- Eliminate barriers that restrict access to justice to all but the
wealthiest individuals and companies.
- Reduce barriers that prevent individuals from having their case heard in
court by restoring pleading standards that make it easier for individuals
and businesses that have been harmed to make their case before a judge.
- Encourage diversity on the Federal Bench
- Strengthen the integrity of the judicial branch by increasing the focus
on personal and professional diversity of the federal bench.
- Create a single, new, and independent agency dedicated to enforcing
federal ethics and anti-corruption laws
- Support stronger ethics and public integrity laws with stronger
enforcement.
- Establish the new, independent U.S. Office of Public Integrity, which
will strengthen federal ethics enforcement
with new investigative and disciplinary powers
- Investigate potential violations by any individual or entity, including
individuals and companies with new subpoena authority
- Enforce the nation’s ethics laws by ordering corrective action, levying
civil and administrative penalties, and referring egregious violations to
the Justice Department for criminal arrest and enforcement.
- Receive and investigate ethics complaints from members of the public.
- Absorb the U.S. Office of Government Ethics as a new Government Ethics
Division tasked with providing confidential advice to federal employees
seeking ethics guidance.
- Consolidate anti-corruption and public integrity oversight over federal
officials, including oversight of all agency Inspectors General, all
ethics matters for White House staff and agency heads, and all waivers and
recusals by senior government officials.
- Remain independent and protected from partisan politics through a single
Director operating under strict selection, appointment, and removal
criteria.
- Provide easy online access to key government ethics and transparency
documents, including financial disclosures; lobbyist registrations;
lobbyist disclosures of meetings and materials; and all ethics records,
recusals, and waivers.
- Maintain a new government-wide Office of the Public Advocate, which
would advocate for the public interest in executive branch
rule-making.
- Enforce federal open records and FOIA requirements by maintaining the
central FOIA website and working with the National Archives to require
agencies to comply with FOIA.
- Strengthen legislative branch enforcement.
- Expand an independent and empowered ethics office insulated from
congressional politics.
- Expand and empower the U.S. Office of Congressional Ethics, which will
enforce the nation’s ethics laws in the Congress
and the entire Legislative Branch, including the U.S. Senate.
- Conduct investigations of potential violations of ethics laws and rules
by Members of Congress and staff with new subpoena power
- Refer criminal and civil violations to the Justice Department, the
Office of Public Integrity, or other relevant state or federal law
enforcement.
- Recommend disciplinary and corrective action to the House and Senate
Ethics Committees.
- Boost transparency in government and fix Federal Open Records laws, public official and candidate tax disclosure.
- Disclose basic tax return information for candidates for federal
elected office and current elected officials.
- Require the IRS to release tax returns for Presidential and
Vice-Presidential candidates from the previous 8 years and during each
year in federal elected office.
- Require the IRS to release t ax returns for Congressional candidates
from the previous 2 years and during each year in federal elected office.
- Require the IRS to release tax returns and other financial information
of businesses owned by senior federal officials and
candidates for federal office
- Require the IRS to release tax filings for nonprofit organizations run
by candidates for federal office
- Disclose the Cash behind Washington Advocacy and Lobbying.
- Prevent special interests from using secret donations from corporations
and billionaires to influence public policy
without disclosure
- Require nonprofit organizations to list donors who bankrolled the
production of any specific rule-making comment, congressional testimony,
or lobbying material, and to reveal whether the donors reviewed or edited
the document.
- Require individuals and corporations to disclose funding or editorial
conflicts of interest in research submitted to agencies that is not
publicly available in peer-reviewed publications.
- Prevent sham research from undermining the public interest by requiring
that studies that present conflicts of interest to independent peer review
to be considered in the rule-making process.
- Improve the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
- Close the loopholes in our open records laws that allow federal
officials to hide tech industry and Silicon Valley oligarch industry
influence
- Codify the default presumption of disclosure and affirmatively disclose
records of public interest, including meeting agendas; government
contracts; salaries; staff diversity; and reports to Congress.
- Require all agencies to use a central FOIA website that is searchable
and has downloadable open records databases with
all open FOIA requests and all records disclosed through FOIA.
- Strengthen FOIA enforcement by limiting FOIA exemptions and loopholes,
and by giving the National Archives the authority to overrule agency FOIA
decisions and to compel disclosure.
- Extend FOIA to private-sector federal contractors, including private
federal prisons and immigration detention centers, and require large
federal contractors to disclose political spending
- Make Congress more transparent by ending the corporate lobbyists leg up
in the legislative process. The
public deserves to know what Congress is up to and how lobbyists influence
legislation.
- Require all congressional committees to immediately post online more
information, including hearings and markup schedules, bill or amendments
text, testimonies, documents entered into the hearing record, hearing
transcripts, written witness answers, and hearing audio and video
recordings.
- Require Members of Congress to post a link to their searchable voting
record on their official websites
- Require lobbyists to disclose when they lobby a specific congressional
office; specific topics of visit; the official action being requested; and
all documents provided to the office during the visit.
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Do these seem like common-sense rules that should have already been in place? They are!
These anti-corruption rules have been blocked by your own elected officials because they work for themselves and not you!