Must Senators Disclose Good Deals on Property Sales?
Q: As a member of a Senator’s staff, one of my jobs is to help prepare his financial disclosure report. As we scramble to finish this year’s report, I was interested to read that a watchdog group has filed an ethics complaint against Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) alleging that he failed to report what I’ve seen described as a sweetheart deal on property that he purchased. This got me concerned about my own Senator’s financial disclosure reports and whether we need to report any deals that he received on purchases and sales in 2008. In particular, our Senator sold his home last year, and it has subsequently plummeted in value to the point that it is now worth 25 percent less than the selling price. Must we report the sale?
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