Lauren Moye, FISM News
A senator recently introduced legislation to improve the financial transparency of unelected government officials.
Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) announced the Financial Accountability for Uniquely Compensated Individuals Act, known as FAUCI for short, on Friday. The purpose of this bill is to require public financial disclosure of unelected U.S. officials on the Office of Government Ethics website. An example of an individual potentially impacted by the legislation is Dr. Antony Fauci, top COVID-19 advisor in Biden’s administration whose name bears a striking resemblance to the bill’s abbreviation.
“If you’re an unelected bureaucrat, and you make hundreds of thousands of dollars, America needs to know if you have any conflicts of interest,” Marshall stated as part of a longer tweet that directly cites the top Covid-19 doctor.
I plan to introduce the FAUCI Act to hold Anthony Fauci and other high-paid government officials accountable. If you’re an unelected bureaucrat, and you make hundreds of thousands of dollars, America needs to know if you have any conflicts of interest. pic.twitter.com/AmhbViegrC
— Dr. Roger Marshall (@RogerMarshallMD) January 14, 2022
The introduction of the FAUCI Act comes on the heels of a public clash between the senator and the doctor early last week during a Senate hearing in which Fauci, still on a hot mic, referred to Marshall as “a moron.”
The comment came after an exchange where Marshall asked for Fauci’s unredacted financial disclosure. The doctor responded, “My financial disclosure is public knowledge,” yet his own staff could not provide these public documents to the NY Post.
Fauci also told Marshall during the exchanges that the senator was “so misinformed” and “getting amazingly wrong information.”
Following the exchange, Marshall sent a formal letter dated Jan. 12 requesting the information one more time, this time with a deadline of Jan. 14 by 5:00 pm. Marshall wrote about the Senate hearing, “As a member of the committee directly responsible for the oversight of NIAID, I expect a direct, transparent, and honest answer. Instead, I was met with a personal insult, deflection, and counter question as to why financial disclosures are important.”
In the same press release from yesterday, Marshall stated, “At the end of the day, Dr. Fauci must be held accountable to all Americans who have been suing and requesting for this information but don’t have the power of a Senate office to ask for it. For these reasons, I will be introducing the FAUCI Act, so financial disclosures like these are made public and are easily accessible online to every American.”
While Fauci was correct that his financial records are obtainable by the public, they are not readily accessible. A reporter for the Center for Public Integrity did receive the records after completing an OGE form 201 and then “politely badgering” the National Institute of Health (NIH) until they fulfilled the request. She reported that it took two months.
Fauci’s financial records were provided by the NIH to Marshall following these interactions by the senator and doctor. These documents are now downloadable from Marshall’s website.
In a similar push for greater financial transparency among bureaucrats, Representative Josh Hawley announced plans to introduce a bill to prevent insider trading by elected officials. This comes on the heels of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s defense of representatives and senators who practice individual stock investigation. Pelosi implied that the STOCK Act, which requires disclosure of stock investments, was sufficient to reign in insider trading.
While Pelosi is under fire for her husband’s above-average ability to pick investments that begs the question of whether he has insider knowledge from his wife’s job, Marshall did directly violate the STOCK act in 2021. This fact has already been used against him by miscellaneous Twitter users this week. However, it’s important to note that the stock investments that went unreported for 17 months were made by a dependent child and involved moving $15,000 from an investment from Microsoft Corp into Disney and Chevron stock.