Loeffler Took Credit For Bill That She Did “Nothing To Push” As Her Company Lobbied Against It

The Daily Beast: Loeffler Did Not Actually Vote For The Legislation Targeting Foreign Companies On U.S. Stock Exchanges, And She Did Not Tout It Until Months After It Passed The Senate By Unanimous Consent

“She Did Not Co-Sponsor The Bill, Speak In Favor Of It On The Senate Floor, Put Out A Press Release Or Even A Single Tweet On The Legislation’s Passage”

A report from The Daily Beast today reveals that unelected Senator Kelly Loeffler has been running on a bill that she did “nothing to push” as her company Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) was spending hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying against it in Washington. Loeffler did not actually vote for the legislation targeting foreign companies on U.S. stock exchanges — like the New York Stock Exchange, owned by ICE — and she did not tout it until months after it passed the Senate by unanimous consent.

According to The Daily Beast’s new reporting, Loeffler “did not co-sponsor the bill, speak in favor of it on the Senate floor, put out a press release or even a single tweet on the legislation’s passage.” Loeffler’s campaign did not respond to questions about her series of misleading statements and “what role, if any, her family investment in Intercontinental Exchange played in her decision-making.”

“Kelly Loeffler is an unelected senator taking credit for legislation that she did not vote for, co-sponsor, or bother to promote in any way until it was politically expedient for her own campaign,” said DSCC spokesperson Helen Kalla. “This is yet another proof point that Kelly is for Kelly, and she will say or do anything to deceive Georgia voters for her own self-serving political gain.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

The Daily Beast: Loeffler Ran on This Bill. Too Bad She Didn’t Vote for It.

The Georgia senator did nothing to push the bill, but touted it after it passed. Meanwhile, a company at the heart of her and her husband’s fortune lobbied against it.

Sam Brodey

December 10, 2020

Key Points:

• Politically speaking, Senate Bill 945 was a perfect weapon for Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) in the midst of a hard-fought campaign.

• The legislation, dubbed the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, would require foreign companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges to regularly open up their books to auditors and U.S. investors—or else get booted from those exchanges. The clear target of the legislation was China, where companies invoke state security laws to avoid sharing potentially revealing information about the full scope of Beijing’s economic influence.

• On the campaign trail this fall, the senator touted the legislation and reminded followers on social media, on multiple occasions, that she’d voted for it. During an October debate, she slammed Collins because the U.S. House hadn’t yet taken up the bill—going so far as to accuse her rival of “partnering with Nancy Pelosi to hold up holding China accountable.”

• The problem with her line of attack, however, is that the senator didn’t actually vote for the legislation. In May, the HFCA passed the Senate Banking Committee, of which she is not a member, and then it passed the Senate with unanimous consent—meaning it did not get a vote on the floor, with each senator on the record as a yes or no. She did not co-sponsor the bill, speak in favor of it on the Senate floor, put out a press release or even a single tweet on the legislation’s passage.

• Meanwhile, Intercontinental Exchange—the company Loeffler’s husband runs, and which she is personally invested in—was concerned about the bill. Publicly, top company brass warned about its impact; privately, they dropped six-figure sums to lobby lawmakers on it.

• That’s because Intercontinental Exchange runs a dozen stock markets around the world, including the New York Stock Exchange. Before being appointed to the Senate, Loeffler was an executive there, and her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, is the CEO, chairman, and founder of the company. Loeffler personally retains up to $8 million worth of stock in the company, according to a September financial filing, and continues to make millions annually from those holdings.

• That concern is reflected in federal lobbying records, which show that Intercontinental Exchange reported spending $350,000 in 2019 and 2020 pushing Congress on “listing restrictions” and the HFCA specifically. Those records do not reveal the exact nature of Intercontinental Exchange’s lobbying, or list whether the company was formally for or against the bill. But publicly, top officials at the NYSE made clear they were far from enthusiastic about the legislation.

• Loeffler’s campaign did not respond to an inquiry regarding why the senator said she voted for the bill when she did not, why she did not co-sponsor the bill, and what role, if any, her family investment in Intercontinental Exchange played in her decision-making. Intercontinental Exchange did not respond to a request for comment.

• “Members take great liberties with congressional legislation, depending on the needs of their campaigns,” said Darrell West, director of the governance studies program at the Brookings Institution think tank.

• In April, the Senate GOP’s official campaign arm sent out a detailed memo to candidates instructing them to blame China for the virus’s devastating impacts on the U.S., attack Democrats for being “soft” toward Beijing, and vow to impose penalties on China over the pandemic. Loeffler, who had not spoken much about China before April, got the memo.

• On May 20, the HFCA was brought to the Senate floor to be passed by unanimous consent, which allows the chamber to bypass a roll call vote and approve a bill so long as no one objects. No one did, and the bill sailed through. Loeffler did not take to the Senate floor to praise it, or put out so much as a press release marking the passage of a bill that she would lord over her election opponent five months later.

Read the full story here.

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