‘Should Be A Nonpartisan Issue’: Van Hollen Offers— Then Withdraws— Amendment For SCOTUS Ethics Code

4 months ago

During a Senate Appropriations Committee markup on Thursday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) spoke about the Fiscal Year 2025 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act.

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00:00Thank you, Chair Murray, and let me start by thanking you and Vice Chair Collins for all your efforts to bring us together to achieve bipartisan products that can move forward.

00:15I also just want to thank Senator Hagerty, the ranking member, for his work and efforts on the subcommittee.

00:25We've had hearings, as other committees have, and we've worked together, as have our teams.

00:30And I do want to thank the members of our teams as well, the staff who put so many hours, as we know, into this effort.

00:38Jen Becker, Diana Hamilton, Maddie Dunn, Maria Calderon, Peyton Thomas, Dan Brant, Winnie Chang, and from my personal office, Sarah Schenning and Deb Haney.

00:52I just want to thank all of them for their efforts.

00:55And I'm going to be pretty brief because I know it's been a lot of bills that we've already considered.

01:01So the FISG subcommittee has jurisdiction over a large array of federal agencies, maybe more agencies than any other subcommittee.

01:11They span from the Department of Treasury to the federal judiciary to small business administration.

01:17And the bill today is the bipartisan product of our discussions.

01:21Just to give you an idea of some of the essential agencies that we finance here, FinCEN,

01:28who's been working on those beneficial ownership implementation provisions, cracking down on bad actors in the international financial system,

01:37like Russian oligarchs and other kleptocrats.

01:41The Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the Department of Treasury.

01:46We need to make sure they have the resources they need to protect Americans' security.

01:51The CDFI, the Community Development and Financial Institutions programs.

01:56We provided $354 million in those programs that provide important credit and financial services to underserved markets.

02:05At the SBA, the entrepreneurial development programs, $330 million for those, as well as the other SBA programs.

02:13We also funded, importantly, many of the oversight efforts to continue to make sure that anybody who committed fraud with the pandemic relief programs,

02:23that we track them down, as well as any fraud through SBA loans.

02:29So it's a mix of very important provisions.

02:31I just want to also mention some of the legacy riders, one that's become especially important these days.

02:40And it relates to ensuring that the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the director of that office,

02:48has the authority to withhold funding from the World Anti-Doping Agency.

02:54For those of you who have been closely following the Olympics, you know that in the last Summer Olympics there was a big scandal.

03:01A number of Chinese swimmers tested positive for doping.

03:05But the World Anti-Doping Agency kept this quiet.

03:10It did not deal with it in a transparent manner.

03:13So we want to make sure that the United States, our key person there, our point person,

03:19clearly has the authority to withhold American funding until we're satisfied that athletes are competing on a fair playing field.

03:27Not just American athletes, but athletes from around the world.

03:30That's been a provision that we added in the committee a number of years ago.

03:33We've kept it.

03:34I will point out to my colleagues that there are a number of legacy riders in this particular subcommittee that I strongly oppose.

03:43I would like to get rid of them.

03:45There are all sorts of restrictions placed on the District of Columbia, for example.

03:49I don't think it's Congress's business to get into how they regulate certain areas.

03:56That said, in the interest of moving forward, we have not tried to strip those provisions from this bill because they're legacy riders.

04:07One amendment that I will offer and withdraw is similar to what I did last year, which relates to the courts.

04:14Because I believe that we need an enforceable code of ethics at the Supreme Court.

04:20I think recent events have shown why that's so important.

04:24I think this should be a nonpartisan issue.

04:27And so, like last year, I will offer but withdraw an amendment that requires the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, to have an enforceable ethics policy.

04:37But because we did not get bipartisan agreement on that wording, I'm not going to insist on a vote.

04:44So, let me close there.

04:47And again, thank all the members of our subcommittee who participated and all the members of the full committee who have offered amendments in this process,

04:56the ones that are included in the manager's amendment.

‘Should Be A Nonpartisan Issue’: Van Hollen Offers— Then Withdraws— Amendment For SCOTUS Ethics Code

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