[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 20 (Monday, February 6, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H996]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1915
                           VIOLATIONS LINGER

  (Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, candidate Donald Trump promised he would 
drain the swamp. The American people believed him. But instead of 
draining the swamp, it has become abundantly clear he is driving his 
own pylons deeply into the swamp.
  Already, Trump Incorporated is making significant profits off the 
President's position. Personal profits aren't what serving the public 
is about.
  My mother used to ask about the superrich: Do they ever fill up?
  In fact, The New York Times Editorial Board wrote a scathing 
indictment of Trump Incorporated. I include that article in the Record.

                [From the New York Times, Feb. 1, 2017]

                            White House Inc.

                        (By the Editorial Board)

       As a candidate, President Trump spent contributors' money 
     for office space that he owned, stays at his resorts and food 
     at his restaurants. He spent contributors' money on Trump-
     branded wine and water. He displayed Trump merchandise at 
     campaign events. Now he seems determined to milk the 
     presidency, apparently synonymous with his brand in his eyes, 
     for a fortune.
       ``The brand is certainly a hotter brand than it was 
     before,'' Mr. Trump observed, with satisfaction, shortly 
     after the election.
       Last week, an executive of the Trump Organization, Eric 
     Danziger, said it would open Trump-branded hotels in the 26 
     largest metropolitan areas in the country, up from five. The 
     business, he said, would focus its expansion domestically for 
     ``the next four or eight years.'' The fee to join the Mar-a-
     Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., which Mr. Trump calls the 
     ``Winter White House,'' just doubled to $200,000.
       This news came less than a week after Mr. Trump and his 
     inauguration committee hosted parties and other events at the 
     Trump International Hotel in Washington, in the government-
     owned Old Post Office. Even his press secretary, Sean Spicer, 
     has become a pitchman: ``It's an absolutely stunning hotel,'' 
     he said recently. ``I encourage you to go there if you 
     haven't been by.''
       Self-dealing is such standard procedure for this White 
     House that a cynic (or satirist) might say it's time to give 
     in and try to put Mr. Trump's conflicts of interest to work 
     for the public. Maybe if he had hotels in every nation, he'd 
     have a financial interest in being less bellicose, and more 
     supportive of the free flow of trade and of people, even if 
     they happen to be Mexican or Muslim.
       But we really prefer the old-fashioned approach in which 
     presidents put the public interest ahead of their own 
     finances. Federal ethics officials have told Mr. Trump that 
     he should divest his business interests to avoid allegations 
     of bribery and to assure Americans that their needs are his 
     only concern. Mr. Trump argues that he can put a ``firewall'' 
     between his businesses and himself by having his eldest sons 
     manage them. The president and the Trump Organization last 
     week hired lawyers to keep an eye on the Trumps, a laughable 
     ploy that doesn't meet ethical or anti-corruption standards 
     and constitutional requirements.
       Mr. Trump has argued that the law permits the president to 
     keep his business--even though no modern president has done 
     so, and far poorer ones than he have sold off business 
     interests to serve. He and his lawyers have played down the 
     importance of the emoluments clause of the Constitution, 
     which prohibits government officials from accepting gifts or 
     income from foreign governments without the approval of 
     Congress. And he refuses to release his tax returns and 
     divest his assets and put the proceeds in a blind trust, as 
     his cabinet nominees are doing right now.
       Consider the Trump Hotel. Mr. Trump has a 60-year lease on 
     the property with the General Services Administration. That 
     contract states that no elected federal official ``shall be 
     admitted to any share or part of this lease, or to any 
     benefit that may arise therefrom.'' That unambiguous clause 
     exists to prevent corruption and self-dealing by government 
     officials.
       Since Mr. Trump officially violated the lease when he 
     assumed office, the agency is clearly obligated to cancel the 
     lease or require that it be sold to another hotel operator. 
     Ranking Democrats on the House and Senate committees with 
     jurisdiction over the agency have for weeks been asking it to 
     address the lease violation. So far, the agency, which 
     reports to the president, appears to have done nothing. Mr. 
     Trump's lawyers preposterously contend that because he was 
     not an elected official when the lease was signed, he hasn't 
     broken it.
       Aside from violating the lease terms, Mr. Trump is very 
     likely violating the emoluments clause by holding on to the 
     hotel. His lawyers have said that he will donate profits from 
     rooms rented to foreign governments to the Treasury, but 
     that's no cure. Experts say it would be next to impossible to 
     account for foreign ``profits''--which, of course, would be 
     based on the hotel's own calculations. Is the hotel prepared 
     to open its books so the public can judge those numbers for 
     itself?
       Congress ought to demand that the G.S.A. uphold the terms 
     of the hotel lease and shame Mr. Trump into selling his other 
     businesses, the fortunes of which are now hitched to the 
     presidency. Democrats have been trying to do this, but the 
     Republicans who run the House and Senate have not joined 
     them. So far, they lack the spine to challenge the president. 
     Just imagine how they would have reacted if Hillary Clinton 
     had been elected and the Clinton Foundation were merely 
     leasing a government building, let alone using it to generate 
     revenue.
       If the agency doesn't act, a competing hotel could sue to 
     demand that it cancel the lease because the president's 
     control of the hotel represents unfair competition. The Trump 
     Hotel has been drawing business away from other hotels, 
     precisely because its proprietor occupies the White House. 
     Indeed, the hotel has promoted itself on Twitter with an 
     image of a man relaxing in one of its rooms, gazing out upon 
     a building that looks very like the White House (it's 
     actually the Environmental Protection Agency, which Mr. Trump 
     campaigned to abolish). Since the election, embassies from 
     countries that include Bahrain, Kuwait and Azerbaijan have 
     held receptions at the hotel, and diplomats say it's 
     important that they be seen patronizing it.
       Mr. Trump has boasted that the presidency boosts his brand. 
     He should focus instead on how his commercial ambition is 
     tarnishing the image of public service. If he continues to 
     reduce the most powerful office in the world to a marketing 
     scheme, ethical public servants, in Congress and across the 
     government, can't stand by and watch.

  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, it bodes ill for our beloved Republic. Trump 
Incorporated appears as if it plans to milk the Presidency with his 
enhanced international profile. The Trump Organization is looking to 
expand domestic branded hotels in the 26 largest metropolitan areas, up 
from five.
  At his Mar-a-Lago Club, which the President dubbed the Winter White 
House, the club fees just doubled to $200,000. The Trump inaugural 
committee hosted parties and other events at the Trump International 
Hotel, and his official staff in the West Wing sound like salesmen 
endorsing that hotel. All this is with the backdrop of President Trump 
refusing to fully divest his company, put his assets in a true blind 
trust, or release his tax returns. The question of President Trump's 
Emolument Clause violations linger behind every action he takes. It is 
time for him to fess up.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the President.

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