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Lawmakers Don’t Have To Disclose Federal Loans. 2 Democrats Want To Change That.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand wants to amend a law she authored eight years ago to include disclosure requirements on federal subsidies, loans, grants and contracts. (Steve Helber/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand wants to amend a law she authored eight years ago to include disclosure requirements on federal subsidies, loans, grants and contracts. (Steve Helber/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

It’s well known that lawmakers, Cabinet members and their families have secured millions of dollars in federal funds to support their own businesses through programs like the Paycheck Protection Program, the federal loan scheme set up to support struggling employers during the coronavirus pandemic.

There’s just no way of really knowing when these high-ranking federal officials apply for the very government loans, subsidies or grants they had a hand in creating — and how much they’re getting. Outside of press reports and incomplete data reported by the Treasury Department and the Small Business Administration, there’s no law requiring those in government to disclose the federal funds they collect.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) want the data.

On Wednesday, the two lawmakers proposed a bill to require members of Congress, high-ranking staff and those in the judicial and executive branches who apply for a financial benefit from the government to report it — the same way current law requires them to report the sale of a stock.

“I think unfortunately many of my colleagues engage in this kind of corrupt activity and, whether it’s purposeful or negligent, it’s wrong and it needs to be clarified that they can’t be writing legislation and can’t be benefiting from legislation that readily undermines people’s faith in our democracy,” Gillibrand said in an interview. “It looks like self-dealing, and it looks like pocket lining.”

The bill, provided exclusively to HuffPost in advance, would expand on the STOCK Act, a 2012 law that Gillibrand co-authored requiring high-ranking federal government officials to report equities, bonds, derivatives and mortgages bought and sold within a month. The STOCK Act, which passed with bipartisan support and was signed by President Barack Obama, was intended to catch government officials engaging in insider trading.

The intention of the legislation is to create...

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