Private jets, luxury hotels, and expensive meals are par for the course as a majority of leadership PAC spending strays further from its intended purposes. A new report today released by Issue One and Campaign Legal Center (CLC) shows that instead of doling out funds to political allies, members of Congress routinely use leadership PAC funds to pay for expensive meals, rounds of golf,
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Last week, Representatives Derek Kilmer (D-WA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Scott Peters (D-CA), John Sarbanes (D-MD), Kathleen Rice (D-NY), Stephanie Murphy (D-FL), and Julia Brownley (D-CA) re-introduced bipartisan legislation to overhaul the dysfunctional Federal Election Commission (FEC) and to ensure effective and consistent enforcement of the nation’s election laws. The Restoring Integrity to America’s Elections Act (H.R. 1272) makes structural changes
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Systemic institutional dysfunction was a leading cause for more than 50 Republican and Democratic members of Congress who voluntarily did not seek re-election this year, according to a new joint report by Issue One and the R Street Institute. Interviews with a select group of over half a dozen outgoing and recently-retired lawmakers who were vocal about why they chose
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Today, Issue One and the Campaign Legal Center called on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to enforce penalties against Americans for Job Security — one of the top spenders of political “dark money” in recent years — for failing to file three years’ worth of mandatory tax returns. For this, Americans for Job Security could be punished with the loss
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A bipartisan proposal to save taxpayers money and increase political transparency has passed a new milestone. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) has become the 51st sitting senator to sponsor the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act (S. 298), legislation that would require senators and Senate candidates to electronically file their campaign finance reports, something that House candidates and presidential candidates have been
Read MoreThis op-ed by Issue One Executive Director Meredith McGehee originally appeared in The Hill. In the face of several highly charged allegations of sexual harassment, the Senate is turning to its ethics committee for political cover. It is an open secret in Washington that this committee is an “ethics committee” in name only. In the face of numerous allegations of sexual
Read MoreThe Office of Government Ethics (OGE) has released public stakeholder comments to the agency’s 2018 Strategic Plan. Issue One submitted feedback supporting OGE’s vital role in the health of our democratic system. The released public comments can be found on OGE’s Electronic Reading Room. Issue One’s comments from Chief of Policy, Programs and Strategy Meredith McGehee are below: Dear Ms.
Read MoreMeredith McGehee, chief of policy, programs and strategy at Issue One, is challenging the creation of a new political fundraising group established this week by the Democratic Party. On Thursday, Politico reported the formation of a new mega joint fundraising committee called the Democratic Grassroots Victory Fund. This joint fundraising committee will solicit contributions to benefit the Democratic National Committee,
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Today, Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), John McCain (R-AZ) and Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced the bipartisan “Honest Ads Act” to combat interference by foreign entities in U.S. politics. The bill would ensure that paid political advertising appearing on large online platforms would be subject to similar disclosure standards that are currently applied to paid political ads on television and radio. A
Read MoreIssue One Chief of Policy, Programs and Strategy Meredith McGehee released the following statement in light of a newly-released Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) report regarding Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY): “The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) found that Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) violated insider trading laws and House rules by taking ‘official acts’ on behalf of the pharmaceutical company, Innate
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