CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
– ETHICS
Updated June 24, 2008 – 4:29 p.m.
Ethics Committee Seeks Fuller Disclosure of Senators’ Mortgage Deals
By Kathleen Hunter, CQ Staff
All six members of the Senate Ethics Committee on Tuesday formally proposed more stringent disclosure requirements for senators’ mortgages — a reaction to recent charges that Countrywide Financial gave sweetheart mortgage deals to two Democratic committee chairmen.
The proposal, put forth by committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer , D-Calif., and ranking Republican John Cornyn of Texas, is cosponsored by the panel’s other four members.
It would require lawmakers to disclose residential mortgages as a liability on their financial disclosure reports. Residential mortgages currently are excepted from the disclosure requirement.
“Accountability in government is only an empty promise without transparency and disclosure,” Cornyn said in a statement.
The committee crafted the proposal as an amendment to broader housing legislation (
Of Dodd and Conrad
Cornyn first suggested closing the loophole June 17, amid public scrutiny of mortgages that Countrywide gave to Banking Chairman Christopher J. Dodd , D-Conn., and Budget Chairman Kent Conrad , D-N.D.
Conrad and Dodd have been identified as being among a handful of current and former officials given unusually favorable mortgage deals from Countrywide.
Both have said they did not know they received special interest rates and loan terms because they are senators, but Conrad has said the Ethics Committee is examining the mortgages. He received his loan in 2004.
Because the committee almost always operates in secret, there is no way to know how long the early stage of its examination of the mortgage deal could take or whether a formal investigation has commenced.
For the time being, at least, the committee has responded publicly only by endorsing increased disclosure requirements.
The amendment would require senators to disclose the rough amount, interest rate and term of a mortgage, as well as the name and address of the creditor and the date that the mortgage was entered into.
“This update will help make our disclosure rules stronger, and I believe it is an important step forward,” Boxer said in a statement.
Ethics Committee Seeks Fuller Disclosure of Senators’ Mortgage Deals
“The more information that we can put in the hands of citizens and journalists, the stronger our democracy will be, particularly as we take the necessary steps to rebuild the confidence of the American people in their government,” Cornyn said.
The proposal would not require members to disclose the overall value of their homes. According to a GOP aide, it instead aims to spotlight potential conflicts of interest, and overall home values are irrelevant to that goal.
Manager’s Amendment an Option
The Countrywide issue has colored debate over the housing bill from the outset and has prompted several other amendments.
The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to limit debate on the housing package.
A GOP aide said Ethics Committee members hoped that Dodd and ranking Banking Republican Richard C. Shelby of Alabama would incorporate the proposal into a manager’s amendment, or that it would be adopted by voice vote.
Otherwise, the amendment could be sidelined if a member decided to challenge it on the grounds that it is not germane to the underlying bill.
Although Dodd and Shelby, managers of the housing bill, were careful not to oppose the proposal, they also were not prepared to say they would allow it to pass as part of the housing bill.
Dodd said Tuesday that he was unfamiliar with the proposal, but that he did not oppose the substance of what the ethics panel had in mind.
“I have no problem with it,” the senator said.
A Dodd aide said Tuesday that committee staff members were reviewing amendments to determine what to include in a manager’s amendment, but the aide would not comment specifically on the possibility of including the disclosure proposal.
Shelby said he’d asked Cornyn about possibly adopting the new disclosure requirement as a change to Senate rules rather than as a statute but said, in theory, that he supported the idea of increased disclosure requirements.
“It’s just complete disclosure,” Shelby said. “Sooner or later, I’m not against that.”
Ethics Committee Seeks Fuller Disclosure of Senators’ Mortgage Deals
But, when pressed, Shelby stopped short of saying he would support putting the proposal into a manager’s amendment to the pending housing bill.
Cornyn said that he would prefer to see the proposal passed as a statutory requirement rather than a rules change and apply it to House members as well.
But based on his conversation with Shelby, Cornyn said he was not optimistic about incorporating the amendment into the housing bill.
“I think they’re having challenges managing the bill as it is,” Cornyn said. “If we don’t get it done on this bill, then we’ll keep trying.”
Bart Jansen contributed to this story.
First posted June 24, 2008 1:33 p.m.
POST A COMMENT
Oops! The following errors must be addressed: