Back in March during an impeachment inquiry hearing by the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif. was frustrated by her Republican colleagues' continued push for the impeachment of President Joe Biden, despite the lack of evidence of wrongdoing.

“This impeachment inquiry should end today. And where should we go from here? We should stop partisan attacks on each other and address the real problem: that the American people believe that the rules that prevent corruption are way too weak to stop politicians on both sides of the aisle from influence peddling,” lamented Porter. The Republicans and Democrats of House Oversight, she said, should be working together to crack down on corruption, both real and perceived.

“We can pass legislation to create badly needed ethics guardrails. That would be real work – not a real circus,” said Porter as she closed her remarks. 

Then, an unlikely ally piped in. “Ms. Porter, I think you are sincere. And I look forward to working with you on that legislation,” said Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the committee’s chair and leader of the impeachment charge against Biden.

What You Need To Know

  • Reps. Katie Porter, D-Calif. and James Comer, R-Ky., have teamed up to sponsor the Presidential Ethics Reform Act

  • The bill would require stricter disclosures from the executive branch in order to restore trust and transparency in the government

  • The cosponsors may seem like the political odd couple, but experts say both Porter and Comer, and therefore their political parties, have a reason to move on a bill like this now

  • But Porter accuses the White House of meddling in her attempts to recruit Democratic cosponsors for the legislation

Now, two lawmakers who are often at completely opposite ends of the ideological spectrum have teamed up to cosponsor the Presidential Ethics Reform Act, a bill that aims to hold executive office holders and their families accountable.

“The goal here is to restore Americans' trust in government. This shouldn't be a partisan issue,” said Porter in an interview with Spectrum News.

“The idea here is, no matter who's president this year or going forward, we want to restore that trust in government,” she added.

Under the bill, presidents and vice presidents would be required to disclose payments, transfers, or other items of value from foreign sources received by themselves or immediate family members for the duration of their time in office, in addition to the two years before and after.

Presidents and vice presidents would also have to disclose conflicts of interest upon taking the oath of office and be required to disclose gifts valued at more than $10,000 received from or by immediate family members over the same period.

While some may be surprised to see Porter and Comer teamed up on a bill like this, Michael Genovese, a professor of political science and President of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University says it’s “not as odd a pairing as you might think.”

“Both sides believe that they have something to gain. The Republicans believe that if this passes, they can use this to go after what they call the Biden crime family,” explained Genovese. “If it passes and Donald Trump gets elected, the Democrats have from day one an issue that they can beat Donald Trump over the head with.”

Genovese, who authored How Trump Governs: The Trumping of American Politics, said the bill could have been called “the Trump Protection Act.”

“It's an after-the-fact effort to try to deal with some of the problems raised in the Trump presidency. But it also has a future orientation,” he acknowledged.

“There seems to be a momentum that was built up that wasn't there, say 6 or 7 years ago. Donald Trump was the first president to monetize the presidency, and so the Democrats have long been on a tear to do something about this, Republicans feel that this is an issue for the future for them,” Genovese said. “But if you look at it, it parallels the Donald Trump presidency: it deals with emoluments, clarifies tax returns, family grifting, conflicts of interest, full disclosure. All the things that have been in the news for the last seven years are included in this bill.”

With Comer attached to the bill, the legislation has already been assigned to the oversight committee and could see smooth sailing under his leadership — though whether it sees a floor vote is up to the discretion of fellow Republican, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

But earlier this week, the legislation hit a snag.

The Hill reported Monday that three Democratic sponsors backed out after receiving calls from the White House. Porter told the publication “I was excited to come to Washington to introduce my bill and was proud that I had found three senior Democratic cosponsors. When I landed, I was really disappointed to learn that those co-sponsors had decided not to support the bill and had had conversations with the White House.”

Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., and Kwesi Mfume, D-Md., were named by the Hill as the three members. A spokesman for Mfume told Spectrum News Wednesday “the congressman has no further comment,” while requests to Khanna and Krishnamoorthi’s team went unanswered.

That the White House may have turned Porter’s allies away from the bill flies in the face of Porter’s expectations.

“President Biden has an incredible track record of transparency — for example, disclosing 26 years of tax returns — so I can’t think of any good reason why he wouldn’t support my bipartisan bill to boost Americans’ trust in our government,” she told Spectrum News in late May, weeks before her Democratic colleagues dropped their support.

We reached out to the White House for comment on where the administration stands on the bill.