So, the indictment is in and the charges against Sen. Ted Stevens include seven counts of making false statements on his personal financial disclosure forms from 1999-2006. Many of these false statement counts revolve around work done on Stevens’ Girdwood, AK home courtesy of the VECO oil company. Sunlight’s Bill Allison makes the case at Real Time Investigations that if the money spent on equipment, parts, and labor did not constitute a gift, but rather a loan, then Stevens would be allowed to omit them from his disclosure forms, thereby acquitting him of several false statement charges:

[F]rom my quick read of the indictment, it appears that the government is suggesting that when Stevens says he has no liabilities of more than $10,000, that means the hundreds of thousands of dollars Stevens is alleged to have received as benefits from VECO couldn’t possibly have been loans. But if (and for the record, I doubt this is likely), if Stevens was borrowing money, labor and materials to renovate a residence from VECO rather than accepting it as a gift, I’m not sure Stevens would have to report it under current personal financial disclosure rules, which say,

property which is held or maintained solely for recreational or personal purposes does not have to be reported…. (p. 131)

and

Mortgages secured by a personal residence (including secondary residences) that are not used for rental purposes do not have to be disclosed. (p. 136)

Suppose there was some understanding Stevens would repay Veco or its CEO, Bill Allen, for the home repairs, the car swap, the furniture and so on — shouldn’t the public know of those potential conflicts of interest? The indictment reminds us,

The primary purpose of the yearly Financial Disclosure Forms is to disclose, monitor and deter conflicts of interest, thereby maintaining public confidence in the integrity of the United States Senate and its Members. Because the yearly Financial Disclosure Forms require public disclosure of financial information by each Member of the United States Senate, such as income, assets, gifts, financial interests, and liabilities, the Forms provide the public at large, including the voters of a particular state, with the information necessary to allow the public to evaluate and consider official conduct by a Member of the United States Senate in light of that Member’s private finances.

Do the current disclosure requirements adequately “deter conflicts of interest, thereby maintaining public confidence in the integrity of the United States Senate and its Members,” if they exempt personal residences, mortgages, car loans and so on from public view?

(more…)

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Last month, after Portfolio revealed that Sens. Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad received favorable loan deals from mortgage giant Countrywide, members of the Senate Ethics Committee attempted to attach an amendment to housing relief legislation that would require the disclosure of mortgages and their details for members of Congress in their annual personal financial disclosure reports. The amendment was ruled non-germane and was dropped from consideration.

In the House, Rep. Mark Souder is keeping the disclosure flame alive, introducing a bill to require mortgage disclosure on personal financial disclosure reports. Souder’s bill would mandate the disclosure of home mortgages including the name of the creditor, the interest rate on payments, the number of years remaining, and the amount of the mortgage.

This is a good step in providing more detailed and accurate information on personal financial disclosure reports, and certainly a proper response to the Countrywide revelations. Congress should take this issue seriously and aim to adopt the transparency reforms in Souder’s bill.

For further steps on clarifying and furthering disclosure in personal financial disclosures, you can see Ellen Miller’s Op-Ed in Roll Call (no subscription needed this time) from a few weeks ago.

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Despite a string of revelations revealing innappropriate home loans, rent prices, and rental arrangements maintained by lawmakers, Congress refuses to make appropriate disclosure changes to ensure proper public knowledge about all conflicts of interest. A few weeks back I wrote about potential rules changes proposed by the members of the Senate Ethics Committee requiring the disclosure of all home loans, even against personal residences, closing the personal residence loophole. That reform, offered in the form of an amendment to a housing bill, was ruled non-germane and was not adopted. It looks as though we will have to wait until next year to see if Congress remains serious about reform:

Despite a spate of revelations in recent weeks that House and Senate lawmakers received special deals on mortgages and rental agreements, it appears unlikely Members will be required to divulge the financial details of their homes anytime soon, with little momentum in either chamber to revisit ethics rules before next year.

“Any suggestions to change the rules will be addressed in the 111th Congress,” said Nadeam Elshami, Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) spokesman.

In other news, staffers are taking on more work raising money for their bosses by acting as the chief attraction at fundraisers, particularly those hosted by lobbyists.

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Back from PDF Conference in NYC; how is Tom Ridge like Adil Hoxha?; more mortgage disclosures; congressional ethics office empty; and more failed challenges from Hall of Shame indictee William Jefferson.

For two years, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge failed to disclose that he lobbied and consulted for Albania. After a Justice Department interview Ridge decided to finally file a disclosure under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Despite assurances from spokesmen at Ridge’s consulting firm, Ridge Global, that Ridge was not involved in any lobbying in the U.S., his disclosure lists meetings with congressmen on behalf of Albania. Perhaps more disturbing than this disclosure oversight is the reality of the Justice Department’s intervention, which was spurred not by oversight or investigation, but by media reports. I’d like to think that oversight of foreign lobbyists was not led by someone reading the Washington Post for clues and nothing else. (more…)

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