Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced new legislation that aims to create a new federal agency. The agency, called the Anti-Corruption Bureau, would be tasked with investigating what Schumer believes to be corruption in the Trump administration and future administrations.
The bureau is designed to be insulated from presidential interference in an effort to protect it from ever being defunded or its leaders terminated.
According to the legislation, the Trump administration “has been marked by widespread corruption, disregard for basic ethical standards, and repeated efforts to weaken or take control of independent watchdog agencies to protect the President, the allies of the President, and the financial interests of the President from accountability.”
Due to the alleged acts of corruption, Schumer states in the bill that Congress “therefore finds it necessary to rebuild and strengthen” institutions in order to ensure they are “protected from similar abuses in the future, capable of enforcing the law in practice and providing essential transparency into the Government of the United States, and not easily undermined by any single President or political party.”
“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,” Schumer said in a statement. “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.”
A press release from Senate Democrats condemns the Trump administration’s ballrooms, jets, and Reflecting Pool upgrades. According to the group, Trump’s “vanity” and “wealthy allies” take precedence over average Americans, a situation that they argue has been enabled by Republicans.
