Commentary—

Conflicts Of Interest Permeate Congress

By Lindsay Renick Mayer

The marriage vow “for richer or poorer” is more than a promise between two people when one of those people is a member of Congress. When lawmakers and their spouses utter those words, they’re agreeing to reveal to the world how rich or poor they may be. And thanks to these disclosures, the public can determine not only if lawmakers’ own assets could pose a conflict of interest, but if their work on Capitol Hill could have an impact on their spouses’ investments, as well.

Forty-six husbands and wives of Congress members reported owning stock in 2006 in companies that have a vested interest in their spouses’ committees. These were worth a total of $27.3 million to $46.7 million, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics has found. The list includes spouses who own stock in Lockheed Martin while the lawmaker sits on the House Armed Services Committee or own shares of ExxonMobil while married to a member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee.

Overall, 304 congressional husbands and wives whose finances were reported on their spouses’ forms were worth between $698.8 million and $1.3 billion from their stocks, corporate bonds, and other investments in 2006. (Assets and liabilities are disclosed in ranges on these forms, making it impossible to calculate net worth precisely.)

In at least 61 cases, the husbands and wives of Congress had investment portfolios worth significantly more than the lawmaker’s did. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, for example, reported assets worth no more than $15,000, while her husband, Paul, an investor, had between $16.2 million and $57.8 million in assets. Spouses also bring with them their mortgages, school loans, and other liabilities, however. For Paul Pelosi, this could mean up to $10.3 million in debt, more than any other lawmaker’s family.

Debbie Dingell had between $550,000 and $1.1 million invested in automotive company General Motors in 2006, the same year her husband, Representative John Dingell (D-Mich.), was the chair of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce. “Congressman Dingell would be the first to tell you it is his job to put the merits of the subject matter and the concerns of the people he represents above any and all outside factors,” said a Dingell spokesman, Adam Benson.

Others say that the disclosure requirement itself acts as a protection against conflicts of interest. “The purpose of financial disclosures is to provide transparency and to ensure that the public is aware of holdings in order to make up their own mind in terms of the legislators and whether there’s conflict,” said Meredith McGehee, policy director of the campaign finance reform group Campaign Legal Center.

According to the office of Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), whose wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, had 25 investments in 2006 in companies regulated by the committees on which her husband sits, the senator faces no conflict of interest because his wife’s assets are held in family trusts established by her late first husband. Mrs Kerry had more money than any other congressional husband or wife in companies with an interest in her spouse’s committees (at least $18.6 million), followed by the husband of Representative Jane Harman (D-Calif.), Sidney (at least $2.4 million), and Cindy McCain, wife of Arizona senator and Republican presidential candidate John McCain (at least $1.3 million). Mrs McCain held stock in US Airways and Walt Disney, both of which have business before the Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee, of which her husband is a member.

In May, Cindy McCain refused to release her complete tax returns, which she has filed separately from her husband for 28 years, saying it was a privacy issue. Since then she has released a few pages of her 2006 returns and received an extension to file her 2007 tax returns. The McCain campaign asked the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) recently not to include her investments in its calculations of John McCain’s net worth, which would be an exception to the organization’s methodology for all members of Congress.

Including the value of both his wife’s and dependents’ assets, McCain is worth between $27.8 million and $45 million, making him the eighth-richest senator. After excluding his family’s investments, however, he appears to be worth between $17,000 and $80,000, putting him in the Senate’s bottom five. CRP has declined the campaign’s request, since McCain still benefits from his wife’s wealth — and she could potentially benefit financially from his official decisions.

(Lindsay Renick Mayer writes for Capital Eye, the online newsletter and blog of the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research organization in Washington, D.C., that tracks the influence of money on elections and public policy at its website, www.OpenSecrets.org.)