“Combating Corruption” Public Citizen Forum Addresses Corporate and Government Corruption, Introduces Policy Solutions
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, at the National Press Club in Washington DC, Public Citizen, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, (D-NY), U.S. Sen Alex Padilla (D-CA) and U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) along with leading pro-democracy organizations, called out the dangers of government and corporate corruption and pathways to stop it.
Watch the recorded livestream here.
Right now, the insatiable greed of corporations, billionaires and morally bankrupt politicians is harming the lives of everyday Americans and U.S. democracy. Public Citizen’s “Combating Corruption” forum highlighted the work and new proposals to combat corruption at every level including money in politics, contracting scandals, pay-to-play schemes and family enrichment deals for elected officials.
“Corporations and billionaire executives are using their immense wealth to shape the rules of politics and government to benefit themselves. No one abuses that system more than President Trump, whose family has made billions exploiting the highest office in the land,” said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen. “That’s why prioritizing anti-corruption solutions is so important — and so popular with the American people, who are fed up with being taken advantage of by grifters like Donald Trump while working families struggle to get by. We urgently need policy that changes the way that government operates and paves the way for robust accountability for bad actors.”
At the event, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer announced that he is introducing the Anti-Corruption Bureau Creation Act, landmark legislation to create the nation’s first independent federal bureau dedicated to rooting out corruption across the executive branch and stopping presidents from turning public power into private profit.
“Trump has turned the presidency into the most profitable scam of his life, and Republicans have helped him cash every check—all while working families struggle to afford groceries, gas, housing, and healthcare,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. While Republicans seem all too eager to cosign his behavior, Senate Democrats are committed to holding this country to a higher standard. Senate Democrats are fighting to create the first-ever independent Anti-Corruption Bureau with the power to follow the money, expose the corruption and claw back corrupt profits. No president should ever be allowed to treat the White House like a personal ATM.”
“Donald Trump is the most corrupt president in American history,” said U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA.).“From sweetheart deals with the DOJ, stock purchases ahead of mega-million government contracts, selling inside information to hedge funds, payments for pardons, and accepting bribe airplanes from foreign governments, the pattern is clear: the grift is coming directly from the Oval Office. That’s why conversations like this are so important — to lay out the issues and organize our response to this crisis of corruption. Democrats are launching independent investigations to expose the Trump Administration’s abuses to identify the financial harm to working families and develop bold new reforms to stop future presidents from exploiting the power of the White House for their own gain. We must keep fighting to hold Donald Trump and his Administration accountable.”
“Under President Trump, the federal government is rotted through with corruption,” said U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). “I’m in the middle of big fights to rid our politics of corrupting dark money, end the fossil fuel industry’s corrupt climate denial fraud operation, and get the corrupted and captured Supreme Court back to behaving like an honest court. There’s much work ahead on these fronts, and Public Citizen is a great partner in all of it.”