White House Alleged to Be Blocking Support for Ethics Legislation

Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., accused the White House of sabotaging Democrat support for a bipartisan executive ethics bill that she and House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., collaborated on.

As reported by The Hill, Comer and Porter had an equal number of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle lined up as co-sponsors for the White House ethics bill they worked on passing last month.

Porter informed The Hill that Democrat backing for the bill vanished just before its introduction after the White House made contact with her colleagues, which she found out about while on a flight back to Washington, D.C.

“I was looking forward to introducing my bill in Washington and was pleased to have secured three senior Democratic co-sponsors,” Porter informed The Hill. “Upon landing, I was disappointed to discover that those co-sponsors had opted not to support the bill after conversations with the White House.”

Sources mentioned by the outlet stated that Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., and Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., ultimately decided against endorsing the bill due to concerns about its content and the potential use of it against President Joe Biden.

“I believe it was too much of a partisan tool rather than a serious effort for bipartisan ethics reform,” Khanna told The Hill.

“I don’t think it had enough bipartisan support,” he later elaborated. “But I made the decision independently. No one influenced me.”

Mfume told The Hill that he did not sense there would be sufficient bipartisan backing for the bill.

“I was expecting a more significant bipartisan effort,” he stated. “When that did not materialize, I decided to step back.”

He mentioned receiving no opposition from the White House or its allies regarding the legislation.

Krishnamoorthi declined to give feedback.

The measure proposed by Porter and Comer purportedly demands that presidents and vice presidents disclose any foreign income earned by themselves or their relatives, as well as reveal their tax returns and any potential conflicts of interest.

Some aspects of the bill appear to be inspired by Comer’s probe into the Biden family’s international business ventures, such as reporting any loans to family members and recording instances when the president is accompanied by immediate family members on Air Force One.

Porter emphasized to The Hill that she and Comer had extensively publicized the bill and took great care to clarify that it is not targeting any future president. Instead, it aims to establish the right regulations to restore trust in the executive branch.

“The sole purpose is to rebuild confidence in government,” Porter stated. “Period.”

Newsmax contacted the White House for a response to the allegation but did not receive an immediate reply.