Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee shouldn’t buy stock in Defense contractors
Timothy P. Carney
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Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), a member of the Armed Services Committee, recently bought at least $100,000 worth of stock in Defense Department contractor Qualcomm, according to his latest financial filing.
Tuberville is investing in companies over whose fate he has extraordinary influence. Through his public actions, he has the ability to increase his personal wealth. This is exactly the sort of situation that has inspired lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to push for a ban on stock trading by sitting lawmakers.
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Tuberville’s Sept. 15 filing indicates that he (jointly with his wife) on Aug. 31 purchased Qualcomm shares worth somewhere between $100,000 and $250,000. The filing also reports many other smaller transactions, including his sale of $100,000 to $250,000 in Ford stock in mid-August.
Qualcomm last year was awarded a seven-figure contract with the Department of Defense.
Veteran money-in-politics reporter Dave Levinthal adds some detail on the contract: “Among these is a Department of the Army contract with Qualcomm Intelligent Solutions, worth nearly $11.7 million with the possibility of growing to $30.4 million, related to a government program exploring ‘innovative, energy-efficient, and reliable computer architectures that can address the intelligence community’s large-scale data-analytic applications.’”
The Defense Department’s funding is authorized by the National Defense Authorization Act, which comes out of the Armed Services Committee.
Tuberville has been very explicit about his willingness to use his Armed Services Committee perch to steer the NDAA in a way that helps him politically.
In a recent press release, Tuberville bragged: “In his third year on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Tuberville secured significant wins for Alabama’s defense industrial base, employee-owned companies (ESOPs), and worked to accelerate the decision to bring SPACECOM to Alabama.”
If Tuberville will flex his committee strength to benefit his home state, he likewise has the ability to benefit his personal portfolio.
There is no evidence that Tuberville has taken actions to boost Qualcomm or any other company in which he holds stock, but the potential for self-enrichment ought to be enough to dissuade Armed Services Committee members from investing in DOD contractors.
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Lawmakers can be tempted, if only subconsciously, to take or not take an action that might affect their stock holdings. Even if our lawmakers only act out of pure intentions, the sight of senators profiting off of government contractors while in office sows distrust among the public and thus is harmful.
If Congress isn’t going to pass a law to prevent members from owning individual stocks, at least committees should pass rules banning members from owning stock in the companies whose contracts they oversee.