This post originally appeared at https://wisconsindailystar.com/politics/wisconsin-congressman-mike-gallaghers-daddy-act-aims-to-end-hunter-biden-like-influence-peddling/mkittle/2023/10/02/

As concerns mount about alleged Biden family pay-to-play schemes, U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) introduced the Deterring Attempts at Dirty Deals by Youngsters — or DADDY — Act.

The bill bans immediate family members of the president, vice president, and cabinet officials from working for certain foreign companies while their family members are in office.

Apparently, doing so is not against the law.

Gallagher’s proposal comes as the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability held its first impeachment inquiry hearing into allegations that President Joe Biden participated in influence-peddling schemes tied to his troubled son, Hunter Biden. Committee Republicans leading the inquiry accuse Joe Biden of lying to the American people about his involvement with his son’s suspect business dealings when Joe Biden served as vice president under former President Barrack Obama.

Members of Biden’s immediate family allegedly sold foreign companies in Ukraine, Russia, China, and elsewhere access to Joe Biden as vice president — access valued netting millions of dollars.

Gallagher said the Bidens’ conduct reeks of nepotism, undermines public trust, corrupts institutions, and should be illegal. The congressman’s bill would clearly make such dealings a crime, punishable by a fine of up to $250,000, up to five years in prison, or both.

Gallagher called Biden the “ultimate swamp creature.”

“His shameless degree of influence peddling and profiteering is exactly what’s wrong with Washington and it’s shocking this kind of behavior isn’t illegal already,” the congressman said. “This bill helps end this kind of corruption and ensures any family member of an executive branch official can’t profit off their family’s position in government,”

The DADDY Act would:

• Prohibit the immediate family members of the president, vice president, and cabinet officials from working for certain foreign companies while their family members are in office.
• Apply to a spouse, child, mother, father, sibling, grandchild, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, and brother-in-law, as well as stepchildren, foster children, and adoptive children and siblings.
• Make this crime punishable by a fine of up to $250,000, up to five years in jail, or both.

At Thursday’s hearing, called to investigate whether there is enough evidence for the House to impeach the president, witnesses testified that Biden’s conduct warrants an inquiry.

Democrat committee members accused Republicans of playing politics, asserting they had their priorities out of whack as the government faced a looming shutdown. Democrats, of course, launched two impeachments against then-President Donald Trump during his four years in office.

A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll found a majority of Americans believe the impeachment inquiry is not a political attack but an effort to hold Biden accountable.

“We need to focus on facts and not fiction. We need to show the American people the evidence we have going forward, and they can decide whether Joe Biden should be president or not,” U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC-01), a member of the committee, told Jesse Watters Primetime last week on Fox News. “Already, 63 percent of Americans believe Joe Biden broke the law based on the evidence we have.”

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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.

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