Congresswoman Jackie Speier (pronounced SPEAR) is a fearless fighter for women’s equality, LGBTQ rights and the disenfranchised who has dedicated her life to eliminating government corruption while working to strengthen America’s national and economic security. She was named to Newsweek’s list of 150 “Fearless Women” in the world and one of “Politico's 50” most influential people in American politics for bringing the Me Too reckoning to Congress.
A criminal sat in the Oval Office for four years, and though he is now gone it falls to Congress to hold him accountable for his wrongdoing.
Congresswoman Speier encourages all Americans to read the Mueller Report. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation found that then-candidate Donald Trump knowingly welcomed the assistance of Russians who were set on interfering in our elections with a widespread social media campaign sowing disinformation and division and a criminal hack-and-dump targeting the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton Campaign.
Congresswoman Speier has long advocated for oversight into foreign adversaries’ interference in our political process. Even before the Mueller Report, there was plenty of information suggesting deep financial ties between the Trump Organization and Russians and other reports that the Trump Organization was involved in dubious overseas ventures. Click here to learn more.
In addition to investigating coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russians, the Special Counsel found irrefutable evidence that the former president sought to obstruct justice and prevent a full investigation of the attack on our democracy from Russia. In fact, the Mueller investigation resulted in 37 indictments, 7 convictions or guilty pleas, and findings of 10 possible instances of obstruction of justice. While the Office of the Special Counsel believed it could not indict a sitting president due to Justice Department policy, it provided Congress with plenty of evidence to do its job and proceed with an impeachment inquiry. No one is above the law, even and especially the President or a former president.
As a Member of the House Intelligence Committee and the House Committee on Oversight and Reform (COR), Congresswoman Speier believes that Congress must use all available tools, including subpoenas and its powers of contempt, to force the Executive Branch to cooperate in legitimate congressional investigations into financial misconduct, election interference, obstruction of justice, cruel family separation policies, malicious attempts to add a citizenship question to the U.S. Census, White House personnel use of personal communications for official business, among many other instances of troubling misconduct during the previous administration.
In addition to holding the former president and his accomplices accountable, these investigations will enable Congress to pass legislation to improve the quality of government. Indeed, the findings of the Mueller Report and the first impeachment trial shed light on frightening vulnerabilities in our elections and democracy that need to be shored up. As Robert Mueller testified before the House Intelligence Committee, Russia and other nations were already at it again in subsequent elections. In addition to holding accountable those who illegally disrupted the 2016 election and sought to do so in 2018 and 2020, we must also be on guard to prevent similar interference in the future. Click here to learn more.
Our public institutions are only as good as the people that work within them and it is crucial that we have a highly qualified and motivated civil service workforce. Congresswoman Speier commends the service of the federal workforce and is active in measures to improve the standards in the government workplace and support the work that keeps our country running. To maintain trust and accountability, Congress must also engage in active oversight of the other branches of government and pass laws to improve transparency and enforce ethical standards. In her long legislative career in California and the U.S. Congress, and particularly in her role on the Oversight Committee, Congresswoman Speier has dedicated herself to eradicating political corruption and rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in government procurement and operations.
Harassment and discrimination have no place in our taxpayer-funded federal workplaces and do a severe disservice to the important work of delivering for the American people. Congresswoman Speier is a champion of efforts to eradicate sexual harassment at the highest levels of government. In addition to leading the Me Too movement in Congress, she has led actions to address allegations of sexual harassment in the US Forest Service, the FBI Training Academy, the Defense Department, the State Department, and more. In 2019, Congresswoman Speier testified at a United States Commission on Civil Rights hearing on sexual harassment at the State Department and in 2020 introduced the SHAPE Act to overhaul the Department’s anti-harassment and discrimination practices. For more information on the Congresswoman’s efforts with the Me Too movement in Congress, please see the Women’s Rights section.
In her role on the Oversight Committee and the House Armed Services Committee, Congresswoman Speier prioritizes ensuring that taxpayer money is spent responsibly. She was a leader in the investigation of TransDigm, a military aircraft parts supplier that was found to have defrauded the government out of millions of dollars in an Inspector General report and in hearings before the Oversight Committee. As a result of those efforts, TransDigm returned some “excess profits” to the government.
Congresswoman Speier continues to fight to ensure that they return all the excess profits owed and that other companies fraudulently milking the U.S. government pay up as well.
Through her role on the Oversight Committee, Congresswoman Speier is working to strengthen government ethics so that taxpayer-funded official activities are used in the best interests of the American people. After the Trump Administration ran roughshod over government ethics rules, Congress must ensure no future president can abuse the power of their office in that same fashion.
Congresswoman Speier has also been at the forefront of raising attention to the sexual exploitation of young girls by serial predator Jeffrey Epstein and demanding investigations into the government’s mishandling of Epstein’s molestation and sex-trafficking case. The 13-month sweetheart plea deal and nonprosecution agreement that former Secretary Alexander Acosta gave Epstein in Florida, and the gross negligence that resulted in Epstein committing suicide, demand answers and warrant congressional oversight.
We must give voice to the victims, whose rights were violated by being left in the dark. To that end, Congresswoman Speier introduced the Courtney Wild Crime Victims Rights Reform Act to strengthen victims’ rights and ensure that this kind of violation does not happen again.