U.S. Congressman proposes bill to implement Trump’s “draining the swamp”

Members of the U.S. Civil Guard on duty near the Capitol on Jan. 8

On Thursday, Feb. 4, Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin announced the advancement of a series of bills aimed at reducing funding incentives for members of Congress, which he says are designed to fulfill former President Trump‘s promise to “drain the swamp.

The Washington Examiner reports that Gallagher’s bill wants to prevent Congress from going into recess without passing a balanced federal budget and prohibit members of Congress and senior executive branch staff from lobbying their work agencies for five years after they leave office. The bill would also terminate members’ publicly funded pensions.

The “five-year lobbying ban” was also an ethics executive order signed by President Trump in 2017, though it was rescinded in the final hours before Biden‘s inauguration, and in a similar last-minute move in 2000, former President Clinton rescinded an executive order that banned his aides from lobbying for five years.

Rep. Gallagher said during the campaign to promote the package that the bill was designed to “drain the swamp,” a slogan former President Trump associated with ending government corruption during his 2016 campaign.

Rep. Gallagher said, “The idea is to lock that ethics commitment into law so the president can’t revoke it at will.”

Gallagher expressed hope that Congress would step in so the president would not feel the need to overuse their executive powers and create the ensuing political chaos.

Gallagher, who won re-election last year in Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District, said the legislative branch is ill-suited to deal with today’s problems and noted that Congress and the federal government will suffer from low approval ratings. A Gallup poll in early January found that only 11 percent of U.S. adults approve of the way the government is being run.

Gallagher said, “I am increasingly convinced that major structural changes to Congress are necessary if we are going to have a chance to address some of the bigger policy challenges.”