AMAC Supports Bill to Bolster Ethical Standards in Congress

This bill will help prevent the use of public office for private gain in the case of members of the US Congress and will ultimately place the whole of the federal government under one system of justice, equally applied to all.

March 13, 2023 

The Honorable Josh Hawley
Senator from Missouri
115 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Hawley,

On behalf of more than 2 million members of the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC), including over 53,700 in Missouri, we are pleased to support S. 58, the “Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act.” Ethical behavior tends to and should remain constant, anchored in absolute and natural truth, and it needs to be. Without ethical considerations faithfully observed, lawlessness and depravity rule the day. If the various divisions of government have different ethical rules, if there are two classes of justice, enter the fall of a nation: in this case ours.

Federal employees in service to the American people, in their various capacities, are required to observe certain ethical rules in their interactions with the public and public companies that perform services for the government. Indeed, it is a violation of ethical rules to influence government to give an advantage to a federal contractor or one industry over another. It is equally unethical for contractors and other entities to influence government to achieve an unfair advantage. Of course, the height of this kind of unethical behavior occurs when a federal employee designs a program to grant an advantage to companies they invest in, and then profit from. The Office of Government Ethics publishes these rules for federal employees and there are serious consequences for violating them, but it appears there is no such corollary in the legislative branch.

Your bill in practice will help prevent the use of public office for private gain in the case of members of the US Congress, a practice already prohibited for Executive Branch employees under 5 CFR § 2635.702. Congress should be required to follow the same ethical standards that federal employees must observe. Your bill will ultimately place the whole of the federal government under one system of justice, equally applied to all.

AMAC encourages the Senate to pass S. 58 for the benefit of all Americans, for good transparency in government, for the distribution of equal justice and practice of good ethics, and for accountability in the personal financial behavior of the elected members of Congress.

Sincerely,
Bob Carlstrom
President
AMAC Action

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