LegiStorm: Transparency's Sidekick

A confidential report of the House ethics committee, detailing inquiries into possible ethics violations by dozens of lawmakers and their staffers, has made its way into the Washington Post this morning. The leak represents a rare opportunity to look at the deliberations of a committee that has been accustomed to operating in total privacy.

According to the report, the committee has interviewed Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and some of the people around him in regard to the ongoing investigation into information surrounding his finances and a trip he took to St. Martin. Rangel has been under fire for failing to pay taxes on assets and income, and for leaving information out of his personal financial disclosures.

According to the report, however, he isn't the only one who may have omitted information from his disclosures. Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) has been under scrutiny since 2006 for having failed to reveal portions of his stake in real estate. According to the Post, the ethics committee report seems to indicate that the Justice Department may have taken over that investigation. Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Calif.) may also have omitted "property, income and liabilities" from her disclosures, according to the Post.

Others named in the report include subjects of a previously-known investigation into lawmakers associated with a lobbying firm that broke up after its offices were raided by the FBI early this year. PMA Group has been the subject of a federal investigation into earmarks and "pay-to-play" activities.

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Once again, an Alaskan legislator is in hot water over allegedly receiving gifts that were not listed on his financial disclosure forms.

Court documents filed leading up to the sentencing of Bill Allen allege that Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) received as much as $200,000 over a period of 13 years, the Associated Press reported this weekend. Allen and his oil company VECO Corp. were central figures in former Alaska Sen. Ted Steven's (R) corruption trial.

The court filing says Young received as much as $15,000 a year from VECO to pay for the congressman's annual pig roast fundraiser from 1993 to 2006. It also alleges that VECO vice president Rick Smith used Allen's credit card to buy a $1,000 set of golf clubs for Young.

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The man who has led the Republican charge against the House Ways and Means chairman over the accuracy of the powerful lawmaker's personal financial disclosures has acknowledged errors on his own disclosures.

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) has been the target of an ongoing ethics investigation over errors on his financial disclosure forms. Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) has said that allowing Rangel to remain as chairman of the Ways and Means committee is "the same as allowing a confessed bank robber to serve as chairman of the Banking Committee." Carter has attacked Rangel for leaving information about income and hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets out of his financial disclosures - information that, when it was brought to light, resulted in the New York congressman having to pay nearly $10,000 in back taxes.

Now, according to Roll Call, Carter has acknowledged errors of omission in his own financial disclosures. The omissions relate to his ownership of at least $1 million in Exxon Mobil Corp. stock. Carter's disclosures reveal the ownership of the stock and a partial sale of the assets in 2006 and 2007. But his filings fail to mention his profits, as required.

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Former congressional aide Kevin Ring secured a hung jury in a corruption trial yesterday by claiming that showering gifts on members of Congress and their staff is the normal way of doing business in Washington. So how many precious gifts have been disclosed by congressional aides? Precious few, it turns out.

Our review of thousands of disclosures of congressional staff reveals only a handful of gifts that have been disclosed in recent years. Congressional rules require disclosure of all gifts greater than $50 and bans many kinds of gifts.

A common reason stated for receiving gifts has been for a wedding. When Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) staffer Richard Boykin got married in 2006, he received several gifts, including $500 from one of his boss's campaign contributors and $500 in china from long-time and well-known lobbyist Bernie Robinson (although Boykin did not disclose him as such). Gifts from lobbyists are banned by House rules.

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The House ethics committee has expanded its existing investigation of Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) to include possible improprieties related to financial disclosure amendments he filed in August, The Associated Press reported this afternoon.

Those amendments revealed several assets that had previously been undisclosed, including a previously undisclosed account valued at least $250,000 with the Congressional Federal Credit Union.

Rangel was already the subject of two separate House ethics subcommittee investigations. Among other things, Rangel has been accused of improperly maintaining multiple rent-controlled apartments in New York, failing to report rental income to the IRS and taking part in a trip to St. Maarten that may have been paid for by companies which employ lobbyists, a potential violation of House rules.

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Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) has been under fire recently amid allegations that real estate assets listed on his 2008 personal financial disclosure were omitted from his 2009 disclosure.

The assets are also at the center of another controversy for the former NFL quarterback regarding a potential conflict of interest.

Several real estate development companies are listed as having $0 in value. A note says the companies no longer have any assets; "however, no money was paid or rec'd by Shuler." Shuler did list partnership stakes in The Highlands Property Group LLC and Shuler Properties LLC worth between $1 million and $5 million each. According to the Asheville Citizen-Times, the development companies were folded into the Highlands Property Group LLC.

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Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) has found himself in the role of a de facto spokesman for the crucial Blue Dog coalition in the House during this summer's health care debate. With increased attention, however, comes increased scrutiny.

Ross sold his business at an inflated price to a pharmacy chain whose owner is a campaign contributor and has strong views on the health care debate in Washington, according to an investigation of his personal financial disclosures by ProPublica appearing in this morning's Politico. 

The Arkansas-based pharmacy chain USA Drug, with more than 170 stores in five states, bought Holly's Health Mart in 2007 for between $1 million and $1.67 million, according to Ross' financial disclosure reports for that year. The total includes $420,000 for the property itself. But local officials assessed the property at only $263,000, and an appraisal by ProPublica in August valued the property even lower.

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Do lawmakers fare better in the stock market than average citizens? The answer is yes, according to a story that aired yesterday on American Public Media's "Marketplace."

Using the personal financial disclosures of some top lawmakers, reporter Stephen Henn illustrated how those on Capitol Hill can use general information about the condition of the economy to their advantage when it comes to investing - even when they may be the only ones privy to that information. 

Georgia State University business professor Alan Ziobrowski told Henn, "Senators make significant abnormal returns." Ziobrowski arrived at this conclusion after examining the personal financial disclosures of hundreds of lawmakers, using them to analyze thousands of stock transactions going back 15 years. His conclusion? "They just outperform the average." He told Henn in the same interview that the portfolios of members of Congress perform even better than those of corporate insiders. "We have every reason to believe they are trading on information the rest of us don't have," he said.

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We've added a small feature that should make it easier for our users to stay on top of members' financial disclosures.

You can now see the member disclosures we've most recently added to our database. Even though most lawmakers file their financial disclosures each year on the May 15 deadline, to be released publicly the following month, dozens receive extensions and file later in the year. Members also file amendments to their disclosures throughout the year. Usually these amendments make very minor corrections to the disclosures, but occasionally they can be wholesale changes, such as one Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) filed recently.

We've added a link to the most recent member disclosure on our financial disclosures home page, or you can follow the link above. The recently added disclosures include late-filing senators and some recent amendments. We've also expanded our disclosures by adding past reports that Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) filed when he was a candidate.

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Before he became a politician, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) made at least $1 million a year salary as a comedian and author, according to his financial disclosure he filed when he first ran for the U.S. Senate. But Franken's first full financial disclosure as a sitting senator doesn't provide any insight into how much money he continues to take in royalties from television, film and book products.

The personal financial disclosure forms require all members of Congress to disclose any outside income. Franken appears to have gotten around that requirement because his income comes to a corporation, Alan Franken Inc., of which he is listed as president and joint owner.

The disclosure lists Alan Franken Inc. as "a multi media Professional Services Corporation including but not limited to writing, acting, producing and personal appearances in all film/video/digital/TV formats and all print media." Franken's stake in this corporation is listed between $500,000 and $1 million, and he does not report receiving any income from it in 2008.

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