WASHINGTON — Citing national security concerns, some Republican members of Congress are trying to limit the personal financial information that top federal officials must disclose.
Tucked within the House's 497-page version of the "9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act" is a provision to repeal the requirement that senior-level officials report their personal financial assets valued at more than $2.5 million. It also would end the practice of disclosing the dates of stock transactions.
The proposal to limit financial disclosures initially covered only top-level intelligence officials. It was recently expanded to include all executive branch officials, according to a draft version of the bill.
"Something like this shouldn't be done secretly," said Rep. Henry A. Waxman of Los Angeles, the ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee. "It should be done thoughtfully and after some hearings."
Both the House and Senate have passed versions of legislation to overhaul the nation's intelligence community, based on the recommendations of the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks. A conference committee is currently meeting to come up with a final draft of the legislation.
The new disclosure provision was included during the conference committee negotiations. "They're burying it in a large bill that is very controversial on other issues, so no one is going to pay any attention to this," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, a government watchdog group.
The new disclosure policies would make it harder to detect when officials have personal financial stakes in matters before them, watchdog groups say. The current rules require officials to list the value of their assets in categories, beginning at "none or less than $1,000" and ending at "more than $50 million."
Claybrook said that after her group complained about the special financial disclosure rules for intelligence and national security officials, congressional negotiators "amazingly went even further to limit reporting for all government agency officials."
In praising passage of the House version of the bill last month, Rep. Thomas M. Davis (R-Va.) said that streamlining the financial disclosure rules for top members of the intelligence community would improve the presidential appointments process and help attract candidates who might not otherwise apply.
