Welcome to our weekly DC Wrap, where we write about Wisconsin’s congressional delegation. Sign up here to receive the newsletter directly.

Quotes of the week

Donald Trump promised lower prices on day one. Instead, his inflationary policies just supercharged grocery price increases. Trump says “affordability is a hoax,” Americans are seeing the truth at the checkout counter.
– U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, criticizing the Trump administration on affordability. 

If you want to defy federal law—don’t expect to get paid for it.
– U.S. Rep. Tony Wied, R-De Pere, in response to President Donald Trump saying his administration will cut off federal funding for states with sanctuary cities starting Feb. 1. 

This week’s news

— Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil pushed back against efforts to expand the scope of his stock trading bill while defending it as the “most transformational” effort to regulate Congress in years. 

The Stop Insider Trading Act, introduced Monday, would bar members of Congress and their immediate family from purchasing new stock and require members to notify their intent to sell their current stock holdings at least a week in advance of the sale. 

Steil, R-Janesville, said yesterday that his bill was the most significant effort regulating Congressional stock trading in years to make it to committee – though it was a committee chaired by Steil. 

He said his bill placed a check on unethical practices while allowing members to maintain their stock holdings.

“The focus of the bill is not to make elected officials poor, the focus of the bill is to make sure they can’t benefit from insider information,” Steil said. 

Congressional Democrats, however, are lining up against the bill, arguing it does not go far enough. 

U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, noted in a statement to WisPolitics that the bill as written would not cover the president, vice president, or other members of the executive branch and would not bar the purchase or sale of other investment vehicles.

“This does the bare minimum to move the ball forward,” Moore said.

Prominent Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have also railed against the bill, with Ocasio-Cortez calling it a “scam bill pushed forward by the wealthiest members of Congress.” 

Steil reported assets worth $1.2 million to $2.8 million and income between $10,409 and $33,000 in his most recent disclosure, in May.

Ocasio-Cortez has also said that Steil’s bill is meant to tank more comprehensive, bipartisan legislation regulating stock trading.

A bill introduced in September, the Restore Trust in Congress Act, would require members of Congress and their immediate family members, but not members of the executive branch, to divest of their stock holdings before taking office. 

Some 97 Democrats and 27 Republicans have signed onto that bill, including Wisconsin U.S. Reps. Mark Pocan, D-Town of Vermont, and Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien.

Democrats on the Steil-chaired House Administration Committee pushed yesterday for several amendments to expand the Steil bill to cover executive branch officials and federal judges, include private stocks and commodities, or replace it wholesale with the Restore Trust in Government Act, which would require Congress and the president and vice president to divest of their stock holdings before taking office. 

The committee’s Republican majority rejected those amendments, with Steil repeatedly characterizing efforts to modify or replace his bill as “Goldilocks arguments” and a distraction from passing the legislation as written. 

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said in a Tuesday post on X that the bill would receive a vote on the House floor “soon.” 

As of yesterday, the bill is backed by 83 Republican House members and one Democrat, Rep. Josh Riley of New York. 

U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, called the bill a “commonsense step toward rebuilding trust in Congress” in a statement to WisPolitics. 

All but one Republican member of the Wisconsin House delegation, U.S. Rep. Tony Wied of De Pere, has signed onto the Steil bill. 

Weid’s office did not respond to a request for comment. 

A spokesperson for Pocan wrote in a text message Tuesday that Pocan had not looked into the specifics of the Steil bill but had supported other stock-trading bans in the past. He also noted that Pocan does not own stocks. 

Pocan later posted on X that the bill was unfortunately “more of a Stock Discouragement Bill than a real ban” and that members of Congress should not be able to buy, sell or trade stocks.

— U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan has signed onto articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

“She must be held accountable,” Pocan, D-Town of Vermont, wrote in a brief statement on X.

Democratic Rep. Robin Kelly of Illinois filed the articles of impeachment against Noem yesterday, with the support of at least 50 House Democrats, according to reporting by several national news outlets.

The articles accuse Noem of obstructing Congress, violation of the public trust and self-dealing. 

The charges principally revolve around Noem’s stewardship of DHS’s controversial ongoing immigration crackdown.

Noem on several occasions obstructed members of Congress from oversight visits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in Texas, Colorado, California, Virginia and New York, the articles allege, and violated public trust through immigration authorities’ use of warrantless raids, tear-gassing peaceful protestors and the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman last week. 

The articles of impeachment also accuse Noem of using her position to bypass federal contracting procedure and channel millions of dollars to preferred contractors, including to a company run by the husband of DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin. 

— Dems are arguing U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden’s vote to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies was hypocritical considering the Republican’s past opposition. 

Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, was one of 17 Republicans to join Democrats in voting to pass a bill to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies for three years. The House approved the extension 230-196 late last week. 

Van Orden’s swingy 3rd CD is one of Dem’s top targets to flip this year. His vote came after Dem group Opportunity Wisconsin began a $420,000 buy that included a TV ad knocking Van Orden over the expiration of the subsidies.

Eau Claire nonprofit leader Rebecca Cooke, one of three Dems seeking to unseat Van Orden, said the incumbent “spent months attacking” the tax credits he voted to extend.

“He has repeatedly called for repealing the Affordable Care Act and has refused to put forward a single proposal to lower health care costs for hardworking families. Today’s vote is too little too late from someone who voted to slash Badgercare for thousands of his constituents and refused to lift a finger as rural hospitals in our community closed,” Cooke said. 

Meanwhile, state Dem Party Chair Devin Remiker said Van Orden “has learned how to play swamp games better than anyone, flip-flopping after years of trying to undermine, defund, and repeal the ACA.” 

“After already voting to let ACA funding end, this was a purely performative vote—an attempt to salvage Van Orden’s re-election prospects that have become grimmer and grimmer,” Remiker said. 

Van Orden in a statement said he backed the measure to ensure Wisconsinites maintain health care access and don’t have to pay increased rates. 

He voted against bringing the measure to the House floor.

“I will not sit back and watch my constituents lose access to health care or face massive premium hikes because Democrats refuse to take responsibility for their failures,” Van Orden said. “I should not have to vote for a temporary patch to a broken system, but I will always put the people of Wisconsin first.”

— Van Orden’s office says it filed a police report after an alleged incident involving someone “fueled by anti-ICE rhetoric” who attempted to force his way inside the congressman’s Eau Claire office. 

Van Orden’s office in a post on X asserted the incident was “the direct result of Democrats’ violent rhetoric” and came “just hours” after 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was killed by ICE in Minneapolis last week.

The post featured a photo of the back of a car with writing it on it that read “your turn” with a smiley face and “FUCK I.C.E.” Van Orden’s office told WisPolitics police were working to confirm if the vehicle belonged to the person involved in the alleged incident, but said the individual was honking the horn before attempting to enter the office. 

The Eau Claire Police Department denied a WisPolitics open records request for the police report, saying the investigation is ongoing and “the release of the information contained in the investigative report could jeopardize the conclusion of the inquiry and/or the ability to successfully prosecute any suspect(s) involved.” 

Van Orden in a post to his personal X account said “some radicalized JackWagon attempted to force his way into my official office” calling the incident “domestic terrorism.”

— GOP U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson says Venezuela needs a “real election” after “the election was stolen by (Nicolas) Maduro” as the U.S. Senate prepares to vote on whether to rein in President Donald Trump’s military powers.

“You can tell that President Trump does not want to put troops on the ground to nation-build,” Johnson said on WISN 12’s “UpFront,” which is produced in partnership with WisPolitics. “He’s going to use the oil as leverage to make sure that the transition administration does right by the Venezuelan people. So we’ll buy that oil, put that money into an escrow account to pay the civil servants so they can keep the Venezuelan society as we transition to a real election.”

Johnson was not one of the five Republicans who joined Democrats to advance the war powers vote.

Dem U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who voted to advance the war powers vote, criticized Trump’s moves ahead of the expected vote this week in the Senate.

“The president clearly has the power to use military force when we are in imminent danger and our national security is on the line,” Baldwin told “UpFront.” “But the president has made it very clear after storming into Venezuela that his objective was about oil, that he wanted to secure Venezuelan oil resources for his big oil buddies.”

See more from “UpFront” here.

Posts of the week

ICYMI

WBAY: Senator Tammy Baldwin talks housing affordability

Wisconsin Public Radio: Wisconsin politicians sound off on fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis

Spectrum News 1: Wisconsin lawmaker’s bill to ban congressional stock trading gains traction

Green Bay Press Gazette: Rep. Tony Wied holds call-in town hall, applauds Trump’s policies

Wisconsin Public Radio: US Rep. Mark Pocan on Venezuela, New liquor license law, New cheer team in Chippewa

Spectrum News 1: Wisconsin lawmakers react to Trump admin’s new push for U.S. takeover of Greenland

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