The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) said there is “substantial reason to believe” that Republican Reps. Pat Fallon (Texas) and John Rutherford (Fla.) failed to report financial transactions on time, which is a violation of House rules and federal law.
In reports made public on Tuesday, the OCE — an independent watchdog that probes unethical behavior from lawmakers and refers incidents to the House Ethics Committee — outlined more than 100 financial transactions the two lawmakers reported past the Ethics Committee’s deadline, some of which were outside the grace period and triggered late fines.
According to the OCE, Fallon — who was first elected to the House in 2020 — failed to disclose 122 financial transactions on time between January and December 2021. The transactions were valued between $9 million and $21 million. Fallon eventually “made up” the tardy disclosures, according to the OCE.
But when he filed his first and second periodic transaction reports (PTR) — which included transactions valued between $7.8 million and $17.5 million, and $1.2 million and $3.1 million — the freshman congressman included a total of 119 late transactions, a large portion of which were beyond the committee’s grace period. He ultimately paid $600 in late fees.
Congressional lawmakers are subject to the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012, known as the STOCK Act, which requires that members of Congress disclose financial transactions within 45 days of them being executed. The law also forbids lawmakers from using nonpublic information that is received in connection to their job to make a personal profit.
In addition, House rules require that lawmakers report qualifying transactions on PTRs within 30 days of the individual becoming aware of the transactions, and no more than 45 days after it is carried out.
A spokesperson...