Today, CLC submitted public comments to the Vermont State Ethics Commission regarding a proposed statutory ethics code. CLC’s comments support Vermont’s effort to promulgate a statute with meaningful safeguards to maintain Vermonters’ trust in their state government. 

Specifically, CLC’s comments recommend changes to the proposed code’s gift rules, misuse of position provision, and outside and post-government employment restrictions. CLC also recommends that the Vermont State Ethics Commission house all financial disclosure documents and ethics disclosures required to be filed by state public servants in a searchable, sortable, and downloadable format on the ethics commission’s website. 

During the coronavirus pandemic, the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has been granting financial relief to certain oil companies that drill on public lands. Using BLM data published by the Center for Western Priorities, CLC found that hundreds of the oil leases that have received this relief are owned by political megadonors or have close ties to senior Interior officials' former clients.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on July 6, 2020 that states have the authority to require presidential electors to vote for the candidate that wins the popular vote in their state.  

On June 30, 2020, CLC filed suit against the FEC for failing to act on our administrative complaint demonstrating that Iowa Values, a nonprofit 501(c)(4) corporation, violated federal campaign finance law by failing to register as a political committee and publicly disclose its donors. CLC's administrative complaint had been pending with the FEC for over 190 days.  

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the United States Trade Representative (USTR) in the Executive Office of the President against two employees who wrote new trade rules for the auto industry and then offered members of the industry their paid consulting services for complying with the new rules while still employed at USTR.