Unlikely duo Comer, California Democrat aim to overhaul presidential transparency
Rep. James Comer has joined forces with a progressive California lawmaker in an attempt to increase transparency around the financial activity of would-be presidents.
The Kentucky Republican is co-sponsoring legislation with Democratic Rep. Katie Porter that would force future presidents and their running mates to disclose two years of tax returns as well as payments, gifts and loans from foreign entities before occupying the White House.
It comes at a time when Republicans have ratcheted up scrutiny around the business dealings of members of the Biden family and in the wake of Democratic complaints that former President Donald Trump’s family members struck lucrative overseas deals after overseeing foreign policy.
It’s a unique ideological pairing to shine light on opaque financial dealings — but it’s unlikely to gain any momentum in the months leading up to a presidential election.
“Passing any bill in a presidential election year is a challenge,” said Meredith McGehee, an independent expert on government ethics. “It helps that it is bipartisan, but party folks are always wary of anything that would change the rules they know and might be used against their candidate.”
Comer has doggedly pursued the business dealings of the president’s son, Hunter Biden, but has failed to show any evidence that President Joe Biden did anything wrong.
“Influence peddling is cottage industry in Washington and we’ve identified deficiencies in the current law that have led to a culture of corruption,” Comer said.
In addition to the disclosure requirements, the Presidential Ethics Reform Act includes provisions to strengthen oversight mechanisms, ensuring that any potential conflicts of interest are probed.
The bill attracted a flood of media attention, including a thumbs up from billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who said he was “all for this.”
But some Democrats have reacted coolly to the proposal, objecting to anything that would be seen as equating Trump’s conflicts with Biden’s.
A White House spokesman also expressed little interest in the bill, noting that Biden has already made public more than two decades of tax returns.
And some critics have noted that there’s no penalty if candidates shun the requirements.
Right now, there’s not even a hearing scheduled on the bill, the first step in getting it off the ground.
Comer and Porter have joked that if the bill could clear through the contentious Oversight Committee, it would sail through the full House, which Republicans control by a narrow margin.
But five months from Election Day, both of those scenarios look far-fetched.
This story was originally published June 4, 2024 at 12:12 PM with the headline "Unlikely duo Comer, California Democrat aim to overhaul presidential transparency."
