US/Congress

US Governmentlegal

US/Congress  link ()
Type	legal
Subgroups	United States House of Representatives, United States Senate, Government Accountability Office, Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service, Congressional Budget Office
Staff	Senate
The House and Senate of the US located in Washington D.C make up US Congress. Congress in the US pass, discuss laws and have dozens of other tasks that often get mis(used) by special interest groups and their deep lobbying.

The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Congress is split into two chambers, the House and the Senate. It writes national legislation by dividing work into special committees. Some members of Congress are elected by their peers to be officers of these committees. Lobbyists seem to do a lot of writing of legislation nowadays.

Criticism

Ivo Mosley wrote that around the start of the 19th century that {{#subobject: |Has superobject=US/Congress |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=Ivo Mosley|+sep=, |Has text=“Congress became, and has remained, a forum for the interests and advancement of business. The dominant ethic and the creed of power in America is that the interests of business are the interests of the nation.” |Is about=US/Congress,US/Congress, corporatocracy|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate=2013 |Sourced from=In The Name Of The People |Has sourceDetails= |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName=In The Name Of The People |Has sourceURL=http://ivomosley.com/in-the-name-of-the-people/ }}“Congress became, and has remained, a forum for the interests and advancement of business. The dominant ethic and the creed of power in America is that the interests of business are the interests of the nation.” {{#subobject: |Has superobject=US/Congress |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=|+sep=, |Has text=“It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.” |Is about=US/Congress,US/Senate,US/House of Representatives|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate=1894 |Sourced from= |Has sourceDetails= |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName= |Has sourceURL=http://www.twainquotes.com/Congress.html

}}

“It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.”
 (1894) 

Corruption

Full article: US/Congress/Corruption

Abscam

Abscam, sometimes written ABSCAM, was an Federal Bureau of Investigation sting operation in the late 1970s and early 1980s that led to the convictions of seven members from both chambers of the United States Congress and others for bribery and corruption. The two-year investigation initially targeted trafficking in stolen property and corruption of prominent business people, but later evolved into a corruption investigation. The FBI was aided by the United States Department of Justice and convicted scam Mel Weinberg in videotaping politicians accepting bribes from a fictitious Arabian company in return for various political favors. Nearly 25% of people tested accepted the bribe, and were convicted. The sting might have been a way for the Bureau to retaliate against and get control over Congress after the 1970s investigations (Church Committee).

Sexual harassment slush fund

Congress has established what was called a "taxpayer-funded sexual harassment slush fund" for settlements of sexual harassment claims before those would go to court and thus become public knowledge. Between 1996 and 2018 349 settlements were paid out.

War Authorisation

The US Constitution gives Congress the exclusive power to declare war. Notwithstanding this fact, presidents have been quite capable of initializing hostlities without seeking congressional approval.

In 1970, Time magazine noted: "All told, it has been calculated, U.S. presidents have ordered troops into position or action without a formal congressional declaration a total of 149 times" before 1970.

In 1990 George H. W. Bush claimed he could attack Iraq and launch a "deliberate, unhurried, post-Cold War decision to start a war" without needing approval from the US Congress, prompting one a write for Time magazine to note that "Congress's war power has become the most flagrantly disregarded provision in the Constitution," and that the "real erosion (of Congressional authority to declare war) began after World War II."

Vince Foster's Death

The US Congress concluded that the death of Vince Foster was a suicide.

Insider Trading

While lawmakers who violate the STOCK Act regarding Insider traging face a fine, the penalty is usually small — $200 is the standard amount — or waived by House or Senate ethics officials. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers seriously debated such a ban in 2023, but US Democrats blocked and killed the bill.

At least 97 members of Congress bought or sold stock, bonds or other financial assets that intersected with their congressional work from 2019 to 2021, They also reported similar transactions by their spouse or a dependent child, an analysis by The New York Times has found. When contacted, many of the lawmakers said the trades they reported had been "carried out independently" by a spouse or a broker with no input from them.

Nancy Pelosi

Paul Pelosi, the wealthy spouse of former House Speaker and current Representative Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, divested 30,000 shares of Google stock a month prior to the Department of Justice's declaration of an antitrust lawsuit against the tech giant, as per a financial disclosure submitted to the US House of Representatives. Pelosi disclosed the sale of Google stock in three separate transactions between December 20 and December 28, 2022. Each of these transactions involved the sell of 10,000 shares of stock in Alphabet Inc., Google's parent corporation. The Periodic Transaction Report filed with the House states that each transaction encompassed an amount ranging from $500,001 to $1,000,000 and resulted in capital gains exceeding $200, though the exact profit amount remains unclear. Taken together, these trades involved 30,000 shares and assets valued between $1.5 million and $3 million.

Dianne Feinstein

According to a Business Insider article from 2021, Senator Dianne Feinstein reported stock purchases in a biotech company called Allogene Therapeutics in January 2020. The purchases were reportedly made by her husband, Richard Blum, and the disclosed amount was between $50,000 and $100,000. The article highlights that the stock price of Allogene Therapeutics increased significantly after the purchases.

Videos

Watch on YouTube

Over the years a number of Senators have been accused of making millions from insider stock trading. Attempts to stop them before have failed

Watch on YouTube

On February 2, 1980 the FBI's ABSCAM operation was public. The undercover sting uncovered political corruption. Certain aspects of ABSCAM were portrayed in the movie "American Hustle." CBSN looks back at the scandal in the series, "The Way it Was."

References