[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 17, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H3359-H3364]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                MOVING AMERICANS PRIVACY PROTECTION ACT

  Mr. REICHERT. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 4403) to amend the Tariff Act of 1930 to protect personally 
identifiable information, and for other purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 4403

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Moving Americans Privacy 
     Protection Act''.

     SEC. 2. PROTECTION OF PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION.

       (a) In General.--Section 431(c)(2) of the Tariff Act of 
     1930 (19 U.S.C. 1431(c)(2)) is amended to read as follows:
       ``(2)(A) The information listed in paragraph (1) shall not 
     be available for public disclosure if--
       ``(i) the Secretary of the Treasury makes an affirmative 
     finding on a shipment-by-shipment basis that disclosure is 
     likely to pose a threat of personal injury or property 
     damage; or
       ``(ii) the information is exempt under the provisions of 
     section 552(b)(1) of title 5, United States Code.
       ``(B) The Secretary shall ensure that any personally 
     identifiable information, including Social Security account 
     numbers and passport numbers, is removed from any manifest 
     signed, produced, delivered, or electronically transmitted 
     under this section before access to the manifest is provided 
     to the public.''.
       (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) 
     shall take effect on the date that is 30 days after the date 
     of the enactment of this Act. 

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Washington (Mr. Reichert) and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. 
Pascrell) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Washington.


                             General Leave

  Mr. REICHERT. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous material on H.R. 4403, currently under 
consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Washington?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. REICHERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I am proud to speak today in support of H.R. 4403, the 
Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act, a bipartisan, commonsense 
bill, authorized by Congressman Jeff Denham and gentleman Bill 
Pascrell. It was favorably reported out of the Ways and Means Committee 
by a voice vote last week.
  This legislation will help put an end to the inadvertent disclosure 
of personally identifiable information, such as Social Security numbers 
and passport numbers that are transmitted on certain shipment documents 
to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
  CBP, as it is called, is required by law to make certain shipment 
data available to the public, but that information should not include 
personally identifiable information which may be erroneously included 
on shipment documents by carriers.
  CBP maintains procedures for individuals to request confidential 
treatment for their personal information, but that process is slow. 
Plus, individuals probably would not seek confidential treatment if 
they don't realize that their personal information was included on 
shipment documents in the first place.
  Even if the release of such information is unintended, Federal 
agencies should not be putting Americans at risk for identity theft, 
credit card fraud, and unwanted solicitations. We can, and should, do 
more to protect Americans from such risks and hold Federal agencies 
accountable.
  This legislation would do just that by requiring CBP to ensure that 
such personal information is no longer disclosed.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Denham and my good friend, 
Congressman Pascrell, the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Trade, 
for introducing this important legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join us in supporting this 
bipartisan bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I speak today in support of the Moving Americans Privacy 
Protection Act, which would require that U.S. Customs and Border 
Protection ensures that personally identifiable information is not 
publicly disclosed during an international household move.

[[Page H3360]]

  Customs is currently required to adequately protect personally 
identifiable information that is provided on, among other things, 
international shipping documents. In order to fulfill this mandate, 
Customs currently maintains procedures that allow shippers to request 
confidential treatment of certain information.
  However, it can often take Customs several months to make a 
determination on such a request. Some determinations are not even made 
until after the information has already been publicly disclosed. That 
is the problem.
  As a result, personally identifiable information has been mistakenly 
disclosed to the public. This impact has been acutely felt by U.S. 
civil servants and military personnel, which make up a large percentage 
of international household moves.
  Disclosing this information has increased the risks that individuals 
may be the victims of identity theft and credit card fraud.

                              {time}  1315

  In my view, the current system at Customs is not working as well as 
it could or should.
  I also do not believe that individuals should bear the burden of 
making a proactive request to Customs to ensure that their personally 
identifiable information is not publicly disclosed. We should be able 
to expect that our government will protect such sensitive information.
  This bill is intended to rectify the problems by mandating that 
Customs put in place a proactive system that will prevent personally 
identifiable information from being made public.
  I call on my colleagues to support this commonsense legislation that 
has support on both sides of the aisle.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. REICHERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Denham), the coauthor of this legislation.
  Mr. DENHAM. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Reichert of the 
Subcommittee on Trade for yielding and for his work on this important 
issue.
  Protecting Americans' personally identifiable information has been 
hotly debated in the Halls of Congress this month. Last week, we 
debated appropriate limitations on private companies' access, use, and 
distribution of private data.
  This week in the House, we are moving a package of bills to improve 
the Federal Government's use of Americans' data to ensure that the 
government is doing everything to keep its citizens safe.
  Private companies should not be selling personal information without 
consent, but unequivocally, the Federal Government should not be 
selling the personal information of its citizens and armed services 
members.
  I introduced H.R. 4403, the Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act, 
to ensure that Federal agencies are taking the necessary extra step of 
removing Social Security numbers, passport numbers, and ID numbers from 
shipping information.
  Currently, the Customs and Border Protection agency is not taking 
this step.
  In absence of this action, when Americans move internationally, their 
information may be erroneously made public online.
  Representatives from the Department of Defense, Department of State, 
the DEA, and FBI, and others have heard from their employees on 
numerous occasions that their information has been found for sale on 
the internet through the manifest disclosure process.
  Annual Department of Defense moves alone are enormous in scope, with 
roughly 600,000 servicemembers and their families moving every year, of 
which 200,000 of those are going international.
  In 2014 and 2015, the Army's Surface Deployment and Distribution 
Command issued separate advisories alerting servicemembers to this 
issue.
  We must do a better job of protecting our armed servicemembers who 
are making a sacrifice to wear the cloth of this great Nation.
  I want to be clear that there is merit to shipping and cargo 
statistics. We need to make them available for economic trend analysis, 
but that does not mean that we put our citizens and Armed Forces at 
risk in the process.
  The manifest disclosure process should not be repealed. The CBP 
should be required to remove the sensitive data.
  Chairman Brady and Chairman Reichert have identified this issue and 
unanimously reported the bill out of the committee last week. It is 
good governance and bipartisan legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colead, Congressman Pascrell, for his 
work on this bill, and I urge its passage.
  Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I 
have no further speakers, and I am prepared to close.
  Mr. Speaker, today is tax day, as if you didn't know that, and newly 
filed FEC reports show that the President's campaign paid his 
businesses $150,000 in the first quarter of this year, including 
$68,000 to the Trump Hotel in D.C., and $58,000 for rent.
  Lobbyists in foreign governments continue to spend money at these 
hotels. We have no way of verifying what that income looks like or 
where it is coming from.
  Candidate Trump said on the campaign trail: ``My whole life I have 
been greedy, greedy, greedy. I have grabbed all the money I could get. 
I am so greedy.''
  Since the election, we have witnessed not just his own conflicts of 
self-enrichment at taxpayers' expense, but petty graft from members of 
his Cabinet and his administration, lavish travel on military jets and 
first-class tickets for personal reasons, and expensive office 
decorations. Lobbyists have been welcomed into agencies to write their 
own regulations.

  His campaign and White House is filled with the ranks of people who 
already have pleaded guilty; Michael Flynn, who sold his connections to 
Russia and Turkish dictators while working for Mr. Trump; and so many 
other associates and their connections to foreign governments as 
leverage, and that is potentially a conflict of interest.
  Bribery and grift might have a place in a crime family, but it has no 
place in the Office of the President or in the Congress of the United 
States, and this Congress has been absolutely derelict and complicit in 
the unprecedented conflicts of this Presidency.
  Since February of 2017, I have been calling on the chairman of the 
Committee on Ways and Means to request the President's tax returns, 
which he has the authority to do under section 6103 of the Tax Code. I 
have called up resolutions. Eighteen times the committee and this House 
have voted against seeing the President's tax returns. Why?
  Why did the President support giving rich people and corporations a 
giant tax cut? Why is he letting Wall Street and Big Oil write their 
own rules? Why are his children still running his company? Why has he 
not divested, as he was told to do by the ethics commissioner?
  President Trump seems to have an unhealthy admiration for 
authoritarian leaders. He seems to have a vision of turning America 
into an economy and government run by his own greedy and connected 
circle of oligarchs. But subverting our democracy for personal gain 
while Congress looks the other way is poisonous to our republic and our 
democracy and it is an anthema to our values.
  Today is tax day, the 452nd day of Mr. Trump's Presidency and the 
452nd day this Congress has let him off the hook.
  I call on the chairman of Ways and Means to stop delaying and get Mr. 
Trump's tax returns now, like every other President for the past 
several decades. The American people demand it. We owe it to our 
democracy to shed light on his conflicts.
  Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record an article from New York 
magazine.

                [From New York Magazine, April 1, 2018]

                         501 Days in Swampland

   (By Joy Crane and Nick Tabor, Introduction by David Cay Johnston)

       On the day he took the oath of office, Donald Trump 
     delivered two messages about what to expect from his 
     administration. First came the lofty promise of his inaugural 
     address. ``The forgotten men and women of our country will be 
     forgotten no longer,'' he vowed. ``For too long, a small 
     group in our nation's capital has reaped the rewards of 
     government while the people have borne the

[[Page H3361]]

     cost. Washington flourished--but the people did not share in 
     its wealth.''
       The second message, which Trump delivered without speaking 
     a word, was aimed at a much smaller, but very rich, audience. 
     As the new president's motorcade left the Capitol, rolling 
     past knots of supporters and protesters, it suddenly stopped 
     three blocks short of the White House. Trump, the First Lady, 
     and the rest of his family got out of their limos and took a 
     three-minute turn in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue.
       This was no random spot. The very first place Trump headed 
     after being sworn in--his true destination all along, in a 
     sense--was the Old Post Office and Clock Tower, which only 12 
     days before the election had been repurposed as the Trump 
     International Hotel Washington. The elegant granite 
     structure, whose architectural character Trump had promised 
     to preserve, was now besmirched by a gaudy, faux-gold sign 
     bearing his name. The carefully choreographed stop sent a 
     clear signal to the foreign governments, lobbyists, and 
     corporate interests keen on currying favor in Washington.
       Oil companies, mining interests, insurance executives, 
     foreign diplomats, and defense contractors all rushed to book 
     their annual conferences at Trump's hotels and resorts, where 
     Cabinet members graciously addressed them. After hiking the 
     nightly rate to $653--32 percent higher than other local 
     luxury hotels--Trump collected $2 million in profits from the 
     property during his first three months in office. By last 
     August, the hotel's bar and restaurant had hauled in another 
     $8 million in revenue. And although Trump has pledged to give 
     away any money his hotels earn from foreign governments, the 
     plan contains a lucrative loophole: Employees at his hotels 
     admit that they make no effort to identify guests who 
     represent other countries, meaning that much of the foreign 
     money spent at Trump's properties flows directly into his own 
     pockets. On March 28, a federal judge allowed a lawsuit to go 
     forward that charges Trump with violating the Constitution by 
     accepting money from foreign governments at his D.C. hotel.
       In fact, although Trump refuses to disclose the details of 
     his myriad business operations, he continues to enjoy access 
     to every dime he makes as president. Instead of setting up a 
     blind trust to avoid conflicts of interest, as other 
     presidents have done, Trump put his two grown sons in charge 
     of his more than 500 business entities. His sons regularly 
     brief Trump about how the enterprises are doing. What's more, 
     only 15 days after this ``eyes wide open'' trust was set up, 
     Trump amended the fine print to allow him to take money out 
     of the operation any time he pleases. The loophole, buried on 
     page 161 of the 166-page form, stipulates that any ``net 
     income or principal'' can be distributed to Trump ``at his 
     request.'' Far from putting his wealth in a blind trust, 
     Trump asked the public for its blind trust, effectively 
     sticking his money in a piggy bank in Don Jr.'s room that he 
     is free to raid at any hour of the day or night.
       Trump's children are working hard to cash in on his time in 
     office--especially with foreign investors. At taxpayer 
     expense, they have flown to Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, 
     Dubai, and India in search of licensing and real-estate 
     deals, trading on the president's influence in exchange for 
     investments. But the biggest complication of Trump's 
     presidency--and the one he works hardest to keep secret--is 
     the way his entire business operation is mired in massive 
     debt. Rather than being independently wealthy, public records 
     show, Trump and the business partnerships in which he is a 
     leading investor owe big banks and foreign governments at 
     least $2.3 billion--far more than his disclosure reports 
     indicate. His largest single loan--for nearly $1 billion--is 
     from a syndicate assembled by Goldman Sachs that includes the 
     state-owned Bank of China If either Trump or Jared Kushner, 
     who tried to shake down Qatar's finance minister for a loan, 
     winds up needing to negotiate new terms on his ballooning 
     debt, America could find itself being dictated to by a 
     foreign government--all because the White House, thanks to 
     Trump's business model, has become a true House of Cards.
       What follows is 501 days of official corruption, from 
     small-time graft and brazen influence peddling to full-blown 
     raids on the federal Treasury. But as even this initial 
     glimpse makes clear, Trump isn't draining the swamp--he's 
     monetizing it.--David Cay Johnston


                         Trump's Hotel in D.C.

     2016
       12/7 Diplomats from Bahrain move the country's National Day 
     celebration from the Ritz-Carlton to the ballroom at the 
     Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
     2017
       1/20 A watchdog group calls on the General Services 
     Administration, a federal agency, to stop leasing the Old 
     Post Office to Trump for use as the hotel. The agency's 
     ethics division, which reports to Trump, rules that the $180 
     million deal is fine.
       1/23 Saudi Arabia holds a bash at the hotel after renting 
     rooms for lobbyists for five months. Trump's haul: $270,000.
       2/25 The Kuwaiti Embassy, reportedly pressured by the Trump 
     Organization, moves its National Day celebration from the 
     Four Seasons to Trump's hotel.
       3/1 The National Railroad Construction and Maintenance 
     Association hosts a dinner at the hotel, drenched in Trump-
     branded coffee and wine.
       3/22 The American Petroleum Institute holds its board 
     meeting at Trump's hotel, where it meets with EPA chief Scott 
     Pruitt. A month later, Pruitt suspends drilling regulations.
       5/1 Rates at the hotel jump to $653 per night, a price hike 
     of 60 percent since Trump's election.
       5/21 A Turkish government council holds its annual 
     conference at the hotel. The group's chair founded the 
     company that paid $530,000 to former national-security 
     adviser Michael Flynn for lobbying work.
       7/17 E-cigarette-makers hold their annual conference at the 
     hotel. Ten days later, the FDA announces it will delay 
     federal oversight of e-cigarettes until 2022.
       8/11 A federal agency accidentally posts the hotel's Q1 
     profits: $2 million.
       9/13 Staffers for Linda McMahon, head of the Small Business 
     Administration, try to cover up the fact that she addressed a 
     business lobbying event at the hotel, avoiding images of 
     hotel signs bearing Trump's name when posting photos of the 
     event on Twitter.
       9/28 The Fund for American Studies, a conservative 
     organization, hosts a lunch at the hotel. The keynote 
     speaker, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, thanks Trump's 
     staff for helping him get confirmed.
       10/4 At its annual board meeting, the National Mining 
     Association is addressed by three Cabinet members: Commerce 
     Secretary Wilbur Ross, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, and 
     Energy Secretary Rick Perry. ``Coal is fighting back,'' Perry 
     exults over breakfast with the country's top mining 
     executives. ``Clearly the president wants to revive, not 
     revile, this vital resource. ``Five days later, the Trump 
     administration announces the repeal of Obama's Clean Power 
     Plan, which would have encouraged states to replace coal with 
     wind and solar energy. The plan would have cut climate-
     warming pollution from coal plants by a third and saved 
     taxpayers and consumers as much as $93 billion a year. The 
     venue for the mining board's meeting: the Trump International 
     Hotel in Washington, D.C.
       10/5 A commercial real-estate trade association hosts an 
     awards gala at Trump's hotel, sponsored by a roster of 
     prominent lobbying agents.
       10/11 The American Legislative Exchange Council, a powerful 
     conservative lobbying group with ties to the Koch brothers, 
     announces that the venue for its 45th-anniversary gala will 
     be Trump's hotel. The group requests corporate sponsorships 
     of up to $100,000.
     2018
       3/5 The Independent Petroleum Association of America holds 
     a three-day lobbying event at the hotel.
       3/28 A federal judge declines to stop a lawsuit that 
     accuses Trump of violating the Constitution by accepting 
     money from foreign governments at his hotel.


                               Mar-a-Lago

       ``The ornate Jazz Age house was designed with Old-World 
     Spanish, Venetian, and Portuguese influences.''--From a state 
     department promo online
     2016
       12/31 Mar-a-Lago hosts a New Year's Eve party with Trump, 
     priced at $525 a ticket. His take for the night: $400,000.
     2017
       1/1 The resort quietly doubles its initiation fee to 
     $200,000--a potential haul of $2 million. In return, club 
     members get access to the president on a par with White House 
     officials.
       4/4 The State Department runs an online promotion for Mar-
     a-Lago, which is also picked up by embassy websites in 
     England and Albania.
       4/6 Trump and Ivanka meet with Chinese president Xi Jinping 
     at Mar-a-Lago. That same day, China approves trademarks for 
     three of Ivanka's brands.
       6/16 Financial-disclosure filings show that Trump's 
     revenues from the resort soared by 25 percent during his 
     presidential run.
       7/17 The administration increases the allotment of H2-B 
     visas for foreign workers. Within days, Mar-a-Lago applies 
     for 76 of the new visas--even though a local jobs agency has 
     5,100 applicants qualified to fill the openings.
       11/10 The Republican Attorneys General Association, which 
     has spent more than $75,000 at Trump's properties in five 
     months, holds a reception at Mar-a-Lago. It later forms a 
     ``working group'' to partner with the Trump administration to 
     roll back environmental protections.
       12/9 Oxbow Carbon, a major energy company that would 
     benefit from the Keystone XL pipeline, holds its annual 
     holiday gala at Mar-a-Lago.
       12/31 Trump boosts ticket prices for his New Year's Eve 
     bash to $750. Taxpayers foot the $26,000 bill for lights, 
     generators, and tent rental.
     2018
       1/9 The Trump administration opens offshore drilling in all 
     but one state: Florida, where oil and gas exploration could 
     hurt business at Mar-a-Lago.
       2/18 Reports reveal that Trump regularly solicits input 
     from Mar-a-Lago members on everything from gun control to 
     Jared Kushner's favorability.
       2/26 An Israel-focused charity, the Truth About Israel, 
     relocates its gala to Mar-a-Lago in appreciation of the 
     president's support for Israel.


                 Trump's Other Properties & Investments

     2016
       11/14 In a call with Argentina's president, Mauricio Macri, 
     Trump reportedly pushes for

[[Page H3362]]

     approval to build a Trump Tower in downtown Buenos Aires 
     Ivanka Trump, who oversees the family business with her 
     brothers, sits in on the call.
     2017
       1/24 Trump signs an executive order to fast-track the 
     Dakota Access Pipeline. He claims to have sold the stock he 
     owns in the pipeline's builders--as much as $300,000--but 
     offers no proof.
       1/27 Trump issues the travel ban but leaves off Saudi 
     Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt--countries where he has significant 
     business interests. His company was paid as much as $10 
     million for use of his name on a tower in Istanbul, and he 
     registered eight new businesses in Saudi Arabia during his 
     campaign.
       2/3 Trump, who owned as much as $5 million in bank stocks 
     in 2016, orders the Treasury secretary to consider ways to 
     roll back regulations on banks. The value of bank stocks 
     soars nearly 30 percent during his first year in office.
       2/14 Trump, who owned stock in large oil companies, allows 
     oil companies to hide the payments they make to foreign 
     governments in exchange for extraction rights. The move comes 
     only two months after ExxonMobil, which lobbied for the 
     concession, donated $500,000 to Trump's inauguration.
       2/21 Angela Chen, a consultant with ties to China's ruling 
     elite, buys a $16 million penthouse in a Trump-owned 
     property.
       2/28 Trump, who owns 12 golf courses in the U.S., rolls 
     back a rule that limits water pollution by golf courses.
       4/29 Overriding diplomatic concerns, Trump invites 
     Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte to the White House. To 
     gain favor with Trump, Duterte had appointed the president's 
     partner on the Trump Tower in Manila as his economic envoy to 
     the U.S.
       5/7 The Metals Service Center Institute, which is pushing 
     the Commerce Department for steel tariffs, holds its annual 
     conference at Trump's resort in Miami.
       5/16 The Republican Governors Association holds a 
     conference at Trump's golf club in Miami, where members 
     strategize with corporate executives over how to persuade the 
     new administration to dismantle environmental regulations and 
     enact other business-friendly moves. Trump's take for the 
     conference: $400,000.
       5/19 Trump proposes slashing HUD's budget--but retains a 
     subsidy that has poured more than $490 million into a housing 
     complex in Brooklyn where Trump has a financial stake.
       6/16 Lynne Patton, an event planner and friend of the Trump 
     family with no experience in housing, is put in charge of the 
     HUD region covering New York and New Jersey--giving her a 
     senior position in the agency that disburses federal 
     subsidies to a Brooklyn housing complex from which Trump made 
     $5 million in 2016. (Patton recused herself from matters 
     involving the complex, after a congressional committee sent a 
     letter to HUD.)*
       8/2 Activists protest against JPMorgan Chase, which lobbied 
     to slash the corporate tax rate while paying Trump $1.5 
     million a year in rent at one of his office buildings.
       9/19 Report reveals that the Pentagon spends $130,000 a 
     month in rent at Trump Tower--more than twice as much as 
     other tenants.
       10/9 Trump International Hotel in Chicago hosts a two-day 
     conference for the manufacturing industry.
       10/10 An insurance-industry trade association holds its 
     four-day annual conference at Trump's resort in Miami.
       10/16 GEO Group, the nation's largest for-profit prison 
     company, holds its annual conference at the Trump National 
     Doral. The company poured $450,000 into Trump's campaign and 
     inauguration after Obama announced plans to end all federal 
     contracts with private prisons. GEO also hired two of Jeff 
     Sessions's former aides, plus a former Trump Organization 
     employee, as lobbyists. The investment paid off: A month 
     after Trump took office, he ended the ban on private prisons. 
     GEO received a $110 million contract to build a new 
     immigration jail in Texas, plus $44 million a year to operate 
     it. Earlier this year, the federal Bureau of Prisons 
     announced it would slash some 6,000 jobs and transfer more 
     inmates to private facilities.
       10/18 Defense contractor L3 Technologies holds its annual 
     meeting at Trump National Doral. L3 depends on government 
     largesse for 84 percent of its revenue.
       10/19 In a break with tradition, Trump personally 
     interviews candidates for U.S. attorney in the districts that 
     cover most of his business dealings. For the New York 
     position, he ultimately chooses one of his campaign donors.
       11/7 Trump hawks his golf course during a major speech to 
     South Korea's legislature.
       11/8 A payday-lender lobbying group announces it will hold 
     its 2018 annual conference at the Trump National Doral. Two 
     months later, the administration announces it is considering 
     scrapping a rule that requires payday lenders to stop taking 
     advantage of clients who cannot pay off their loans.
     2018
       1/2 A judge rules that Starrett City, a housing complex in 
     Brooklyn that Trump owns a stake in, can be sold to private 
     developers. The sale is expected to net Trump $14 million 
     after the administration approves it.*
       2/21 Mississippi awards $6 million in tax breaks to a new 
     Trump-branded hotel.


                            Family & Friends

       ``The company and policy and government are completely 
     separated. We have built an unbelievable wall in between the 
     two.''--Eric Trump
     2016
       11/13 While appearing on 60 Minutes to discuss her father's 
     election, Ivanka Trump wears a $10,800 bracelet from her 
     jewelry company. After the interview, the company sends out a 
     ``style alert'' promoting the bracelet to reporters.
       12/6 Firm founded by Melania Trump's friend and adviser 
     Stephanie Winston Wolkoff receives $26 million for helping 
     plan the inauguration.
     2017
       1/5 Eric Trump jets to Uruguay to check on an unfinished 
     Trump condo tower. The trip costs taxpayers $97,830.
       2/5 Eric Trump spends $200,000 in taxpayer money to jet to 
     the Dominican Republic to push for a Trump-branded project. 
     The deal--which would put Trump's name on 17 high-rises--
     violates a Dominican height limit for new resorts. It also 
     breaks Trump's vow not to seek overseas deals during his 
     presidency. The Dominican president personally approves the 
     high-rises. ``Here in the palace, the president's thoughts 
     are that this U.S president is angry and we better not get in 
     his way,'' a former Dominican ambassador explains. ``We don't 
     want to cross him.''
       2/6 Melania's lawyers, suing a British paper for libel, 
     argue its reporting ruined her ``once-in-a-lifetime 
     opportunity'' to monetize her position as First Lady by 
     cashing in on ``multi-million-dollar business 
     relationships.''
       2/9 Kellyanne Conway offers ``free commercial'' for 
     Ivanka's clothing line on Fox News. ``Go buy it today, 
     everybody.'' Trump refuses to discipline her, defying 
     recommendation of his own ethics agency.
       2/18 Taxpayers pay $16,000 to provide security for Eric 
     Trump and Donald Jr. during their trip to open a Trump-
     branded golf course in Dubai. The event is invitation-only.
       3/3 Jared Kushner meets with the CEO of Citigroup, which is 
     lobbying to loosen financial regulations. Citigroup 
     subsequently lends Kushner's company $325 million to develop 
     a group of office buildings in Brooklyn.
       3/9 Kushner fails to disclose his ownership of Cadre, a 
     real-estate start-up. The firm's value shot up by millions of 
     dollars after he entered the White House.
       3/20 Eric's wife posts a photo on Instagram of the family's 
     weeklong ski vacation in Aspen. Taxpayers were charged 
     $330,000 for security details and another $200,000 for luxury 
     lodgings.
       3/20 Ivanka, refusing to place her assets in a blind trust, 
     sets up shop in the West Wing.
       4/24 Kushner's family tries to broker funding for his real-
     estate ventures with Qatar's finance minister. The minister 
     declines. A month later, Kushner supports diplomatic actions 
     against Qatar.
       5/4 State Department and Voice of America promote Ivanka's 
     book Women Who Work
       5/5 Trump extends fast-track visas for foreigners who 
     invest $500,000 in U.S. properties. The next day, Kushner's 
     sister promises visas to Chinese investors if they put 
     $500,000 into the family's properties in New Jersey.
       5/17 Kushner's company is subpoenaed by federal prosecutors 
     and the SEC for its promotion of the investment-for-visa 
     program.
       7/21 CNN finds that even after his family business 
     apologizes for name-dropping Kushner at a marketing event in 
     Beijing, it highlights his White House role in an online 
     sales pitch to Chinese investors.
       10/3 Kushner fined $200 for missing a disclosure deadline. 
     To date, he has been forced to change his disclosure form 39 
     times for failing to mention potential conflicts of interest.
       10/4 ProPublica investigation reveals that after Manhattan 
     DA Cyrus Vance dropped a criminal investigation against 
     Donald Jr. and Ivanka, their attorney arranged a fund-raiser 
     on Vance's behalf, donating $32,000 himself and raising at 
     least $9,000 more.
       11/1 Apollo Global Management lends Kushner's real-estate 
     company $184 million--triple the size of its average loan--
     after meeting with him in the White House six weeks later, 
     the SEC drops investigation into Apollo's finances.
       12/3 Kushner is exposed for failing to disclose that his 
     family's foundation--which he led for nine years--funded an 
     illegal Israeli settlement on the West Bank. Just before 
     Trump took office, Kushner tried to sway a U.N. vote against 
     an anti-settlement resolution.
     2018
       2/20 Donald Jr. tours India to sell Trump-branded homes; 
     several newspapers run an ad promising a ``conversation and 
     dinner'' with him--for an additional fee of $30,000.


                         Officials & Their Pals

        ``We are going to send the special interests packing.''--
     Donald Trump
     2017
       1/19 During his confirmation as Treasury secretary, Steven 
     Mnuchin fails to disclose a hedge fund he registered in the 
     Cayman Islands to avoid paying federal taxes--the very thing 
     he is supposed to collect as Treasury secretary.
       1/24 During his confirmation as secretary of Health and 
     Human Services, Tom Price fails to disclose an insider deal 
     he got on $520,000 in stock in a biotech company. As 
     secretary, he will be in a position to approve a drug the 
     company has developed.

[[Page H3363]]

       2/9 Reports reveal that a top White House aide, Chris 
     Liddell, participated in meetings between Trump and the CEOs 
     of 18 companies in which he held large amounts of stock--a 
     possible criminal offense. The companies included Lockheed 
     Martin, Walmart, JPMorgan Chase, and Dow Chemical.
       3/16 Congressional investigators reveal that Trump's former 
     national-security adviser Michael Flynn--who wanted to ``rip 
     up'' American sanctions on Russia--failed to report $45,000 
     in fees he received from the Russian state media outlet RT.
       4/14 The White House stops releasing logs of visitors, 
     concealing trips made by lobbyists and corporate executives. 
     In Trump's first two months alone, by one estimate, more than 
     500 executives and foreign leaders made unrecorded visits to 
     the White House.
       6/29 HUD Secretary Ben Carson tours Baltimore--accompanied 
     by prospective business associates being courted by his son. 
     One administrator on the tour later offers Carson's daughter-
     in-law a contract worth $500,000.
       11/5 New reports reveal that during his confirmation 
     hearings, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross failed to disclose 
     that a shipping firm he owns a stake in has close ties to 
     Vladimir Putin's son-in-law. His new job puts him in charge 
     of American trade policy with Russia.
       12/18 Under pressure from watchdogs, EPA chief Scott Pruitt 
     terminates a $120,000 contract for a firm he has worked with 
     in the past to dig up information on EPA staffers who had 
     criticized him or his policies.
       12/22 ``You all just got a lot richer,'' Trump tells 
     wealthy patrons at Mar-a-Lago hours after signing a massive 
     tax giveway to the superrich. The bill saved Trump $15 
     million in taxes and Jared Kushner $12 million. It also 
     enriched much of Trump's inner circle--including Linda 
     McMahon, Betsy DeVos, Steven Mnuchin, and Rex Tillerson.
     2018
       1/12 Performant Financial is one of only two companies 
     awarded $400 million in contracts from the Education 
     Department to collect on defaulted student loans. One notable 
     former investor in Performant: Education Secretary Betsy 
     DeVos.
       1/31 CDC chief Brenda Fitzgerald is forced to resign over 
     her purchase of stock in one of the world's largest tobacco 
     companies. She bought the shares a month after taking over 
     the agency tasked with reducing tobacco use.
       2/1 William Emanuel, a Trump appointee to the National 
     Labor Relations Board, is investigated for a possible ethics 
     violation after he votes on a case involving his former law 
     firm. His tie-breaking vote would have made it harder for 
     employees at franchises like McDonald's to hold their parent 
     companies accountable for labor-law violations, but the 
     decision is thrown out because of his conflict of interest.
       3/29 ABC News reports that EPA chief Pruitt spent much of 
     his first year in Washington living in a townhouse co-owned 
     by the wife of J. Steven Hart, a top energy lobbyist. Hart 
     lobbied the EPA on several policies last year, including coal 
     regulations and limits on air pollution.


                        Lobbyist & Other Sleaze

       ``We're going to end the government corruption, and we're 
     going to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C.''--Donald Trump
     2017
       1/17 Scott Mason, a key member of Trump's transition team, 
     returns to lobbying--one of nine transition-team members to 
     violate Trump's pledge that he would bar such revolving-door 
     moves for at least six months. One of Mason's clients, 
     Peabody Energy, later helps dream up a coal-industry bailout 
     promoted by Energy Secretary Rick Perry.
       1/23 Trump appoints Jeffrey Wood, a lobbyist for a coal 
     polluter, to prosecute environmental crimes like coal 
     pollution.
       2/6 Lauren Maddox, who guided Betsy DeVos through her 
     confirmation process for Education secretary, is hired by a 
     for-profit law school to help restore its access to federal 
     student loans. After paying $130,000 in lobbying fees, the 
     school gets its wish: The Education Department agrees to 
     reconsider its eligiblity for millions in loans.
       2/27 Billionaire Carl Icahn, an unpaid adviser to Trump, 
     submits a regulatory proposal that would raise the value of 
     his investment in an oil refinery. During Trump's first six 
     weeks in office, Icahn makes an extra $60 million on the 
     deal.
       4/12 Marcus Peacock, a policy expert in Trump's budget 
     office, takes a job lobbying the budget office for the 
     Business Roundtable, which represents zoo of America's 
     largest corporations. Trump makes no move to enforce the 
     five-year moratorium he vowed to place on such revolving-door 
     moves.
       5/19 Trump nominates K. T. McFarland, adviser who once 
     siphoned off $14,000 in campaign funds for ``personal use,'' 
     as ambassador to Singapore.
       8/1 A top aide to EPA chief Scott Pruitt, who oversees 
     federal grants worth hundreds of millions of dollars, 
     receives permission to work as a consultant for private 
     clients. Despite his influence over public policy, the 
     identities of his clients will be kept secret.
       8/15 Two Trump campaign operatives register a new lobbying 
     firm, Turnberry Solutions, named after the Scottish town 
     where Trump owns a golf club. Its first client, Elio Motors, 
     hires it to help obtain government handouts.
       10/17 Whitefish Energy, a Montana firm that employed the 
     son of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, is awarded $300 million 
     in a no-bid federal contract to restore storm-battered Puerto 
     Rico.
       10/26 Trump nominates J. Steven Gardner, a coal-industry 
     consultant, to oversee enforcement of strip-mining 
     regulations. The Senate winds up rejecting the nomination.
       11/8 Kirstjen Nielsen, Trump's pick to head the Department 
     of Homeland Security, was guided through her confirmation by 
     a lobbyist whose clients compete for DHS contracts. 
     Privatizing the ``sherpa'' role in confirmations--work long 
     performed by government staffers--opens up a brazen new 
     frontier in corruption. The lobbyist, Thad Binge, oversaw the 
     drafting of official policy memos and was included on emails 
     between the DHS and the White House, enabling him to exploit 
     internal information for private gain. Among Bingel's clients 
     is an Israeli defense contractor being paid $145 million by 
     DHS to build part of Trump's ``virtual wall'' along the 
     Mexican border.
       12/6 A photographer at the Department of Energy is fired 
     after leaking a photo that shows Rick Perry receiving a 
     confidential ``action plan'' from a coal magnate in March. 
     The plan is a blueprint for the coal-industry bailout that 
     Perry announced in September.
     2018
       1/12 Trump gives Kenneth Allen, a former mining executive 
     who still profits from coal sales to the Tennessee Valley 
     Authority, a seat on the TVA board.
       1/29 Alex Azar, a former lobbyist who worked his way up to 
     the presidency of a drug company, is sworn in as secretary of 
     Health and Human Services. Azar, whose company hiked the 
     price of insulin and other drugs under his watch, is now in 
     charge of making drugs more affordable.
       2/12 Carl Icahn, who served as an unpaid adviser to Trump, 
     sells $30 million in steel stocks just before Trump announces 
     tariffs on steel imports.
       2/18 Dina Powell, who advised Trump on foreign policy, 
     returns to Goldman Sachs only two months after leaving the 
     White House. At Goldman, she will focus on ``enhancing the 
     firm's relationships'' with some of the same foreign 
     governments she advised Trump on.
       3/2 Trump nominates Peter Wright, an attorney for Dow 
     Chemical, to lead the EPA's regulation of chemical spills. 
     Dow has 100 polluted sites that Wright would be in charge of 
     cleaning up.


                              Petty Graft

     2107
       2/28 The State Department spends $15,000 in taxpayer money 
     for the grand opening of a Trump hotel in Vancouver, an event 
     attended by Eric, Tiffany, and Donald Jr.
       4/14 Trump jets to Mar-a-Lago via Air Force One at a cost 
     to taxpayers of $142,380 per hour. For years, Trump heckled 
     President Obama for taking vacations and golfing trips at 
     government expense. If elected, he vowed, he would ``rarely 
     leave the White House, because there's so much work to be 
     done.'' In fact, during his first three months in office, 
     Trump's taxpayer-funded flights to his private properties 
     exceeded $20 million--on track to quickly surpass the amount 
     Obama spent on travel during his eight years in office. Trump 
     made more than 90 visits to his golf courses and played 
     almost twice as much golf as Obama. His family joined in, 
     requiring Secret Service agents to rack up an extra 4,054 
     days of taxpayer-funded travel to keep up.
       5/16 Rick Perry and his staffers take a private Jet to a 
     small-business forum in Kansas City, at a cost to taxpayers 
     of $35,000, rather than taking a nonstop flight to the 
     airport 45 minutes away from the event.
       6/2 David Shulkin's chief of staff falsifies an email to 
     suggest that the VA secretary needed to travel to Europe to 
     receive an award. Shulkin's 11-day trip with his wife, most 
     of which was devoted to sightseeing, cost taxpayers $122,344.
       6/7 Scott Pruitt, the EPA chief, spends $36,000 in taxpayer 
     money to take a military plane to New York.
       6/24 Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin marries Louise 
     Linton and requests a military plane for their honeymoon to 
     Europe--at a cost to taxpayers of $25,000 per hour.
       6/26 Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke spends $12,375 in 
     taxpayer money to fly home aboard a private flight from Las 
     Vegas, where he hung out with a hockey team owned by his 
     biggest campaign donor.
       7/7 Zinke uses $6,250 in taxpayer money for a helicopter 
     flight from Virginia to Washington, D.C.--a three-hour car 
     ride--for a horse-riding date with Mike Pence.
       8/4 HHS Secretary Tom Price takes a private jet at taxpayer 
     expense to St. Simons Island, an exclusive resort where he 
     owns land. The trip, like many of the 26 flights Price took 
     on corporate jets, could have been accomplished with a 
     routine commercial flight.
       8/21 Mnuchin and his wife travel to Kentucky aboard a 
     government plane, at a cost to taxpayers of $33,000, to watch 
     the solar eclipse.
       8/30 EPA chief Pruitt spends $43,000 to build a soundproof 
     phone booth in his office, enabling him to hold secret 
     conversations with lobbyists and corporate executives. The 
     Government Accountability Office is investigating whether the 
     move violated agency spending rules.
       9/29 HHS Secretary Price is forced to resign over the 
     nearly $1 million in taxpayer money he spent taking military 
     planes and private jets, often to visit family and friends.
     2018
       2/27 HUD Secretary Ben Carson spends $196,000 on a dinette 
     set and lounge furniture,

[[Page H3364]]

     exceeding the $5,000 legal limit for office improvements.
       3/7 Zinke spends $139,000 to renovate his office doors at 
     Interior.

  Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the President.
  Mr. REICHERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, while I respect my good friend's right to voice his 
opinion and I respect the fact that he shared that information with us, 
I am disappointed, however, that he chose this moment to make those 
comments.
  This is a bipartisan bill. In fact, last week, in the Ways and Means 
Committee, the information and the comments shared by members on both 
sides of the aisle were ideas that were shared that were bipartisan in 
nature. The bill was talked about in a positive way, and it was my hope 
today that we could have that same congeniality on the floor today 
rather than take a left turn into the land of the President's taxes, 
because today we are talking about Americans and the need to protect 
their identity, and I think that is what Americans want to hear, is how 
is Congress able to help them today.
  So from this side of the aisle today, Mr. Speaker, we are focused on 
just that. We are focused on passing H.R. 4403, the Moving Americans 
Privacy Protection Act.
  It is a straightforward, commonsense, and once again I will say it, 
bipartisan, unusual in this day and age, but true in this case.
  It puts an end to the inadvertent disclosure of personally 
identifiable information contained on shipment documents to CBP and 
holds the agency accountable.
  The American people want to know that we are doing this kind of work.
  This is a good piece of legislation that protects their 
identification, and helps the CBP and Congress by giving the language 
to Congress to hold the CBP accountable.
  We are committed to providing legislative solutions that help protect 
Americans from having their identities stolen, and this bill does just 
that.
  I urge my colleagues to join us in supporting this bipartisan bill.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Reichert) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4403, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________