(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The White House has secretly worked to block bipartisan legislation requiring President Joe Biden and his successors to disclose the foreign income of their family members.
The proposed bill would mandate that presidents and vice presidents disclose any foreign income and other payments received by themselves and their relatives, according to The Hill.
If passed, the bill would also require federal executives to share their tax returns and disclose potential conflicts of interest.
Leading the legislative initiative were two lawmakers from opposite ends of the political spectrum: House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., a far-left Democrat.
“I was excited to come to Washington to introduce my bill. And was proud that I had found three senior Democratic co-sponsors,” Porter told The Hill, “When I landed, I was disappointed to learn that those co-sponsors had decided not to support the bill and had had conversations with the White House.”
The three Democratic lawmakers who withdrew as co-sponsors were Reps. Ro Khanna, Calif.; Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill.; and Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., according to lawmakers and sources who spoke to The Hill.
“It’s too partisan a tool to cudgel the president as opposed to a serious effort of bipartisan ethics reform,” claimed Khanna when asked why he abandoned the bill.
“I don’t think it was bipartisan enough, but I made the decision independently. No one called me,” he claimed, ignoring Porter’s support of the bill.
Similarly, Mfume said that he “didn’t get the real sense there was going to be enough bipartisan support on the bill,” as reported by The Hill. “I wanted to see a larger bipartisan effort. I was under the belief that there would be, and when there wasn’t, I just said, ‘Let me step off.’”
