GREAT BARRINGTON, MA – Democratic Congressional candidate Bill Shein (MA CD-1) issued the following statement following the president’s State of the Union address:

“Tonight President Obama highlighted progress made since he took office three years ago. But as millions of American families know, government action since the 2007-08 collapse of the housing market and the Great Recession that followed has, despite the best efforts of many, been insufficient. There is much more to do, and that includes substantial political reform that ends the stranglehold of big money on our government so we can advance necessary solutions that address, in particular, the foreclosure and unemployment crises.

“That’s why I wholeheartedly endorse the president’s call to ban the bundling of campaign contributions by lobbyists, a practice that is widespread and which gives further advantage to corporate insiders seeking influence. At present, bundling by lobbyists is subject to wholly inadequate disclosure requirements. Recipients, and the lobbyists who raise money for them, can easily disguise the extent of bundled contributions simply by having multiple lobbyist ‘co-hosts’ of fundraising events. This is unacceptable. In Congress, I will champion a ban on all lobbyist contributions. Short of an outright ban, I will advance legislation that requires all money raised from and by lobbyists be fully disclosed within 72 hours.

“I agree with the president’s call tonight for immediate passage of the STOCK Act to prohibit members of Congress from trading securities on non-public information. The bill, H.R. 1148, now has 247 bipartisan cosponsors in the House. I urge Rep. Richard Neal to finally, at long last, co-sponsor and advocate for this necessary legislation.

“I also support the president’s proposal to prohibit legislators from owning stock in companies in industries they oversee as legislators. If elected to Congress, I’ll go much further by proposing and advancing legislation to require members to put all of their investments in a blind trust. To help restore faith in our democratic processes, there can be no question that members of Congress are always serving the people’s priorities and not making decisions that benefit them personally.

“Finally, I was pleased to hear the president’s call for substantial investment in America’s infrastructure. This need is great and we continue to ignore it at our peril. Just in recent days we learned that two Berkshire County towns, Lee and Great Barrington, face enormous new costs to upgrade their aging water and sewer systems, respectively. Without national recognition of this problem, and a plan to address it, there will be many more surprises like this in the coming decades. And local taxpayers will face sudden and large increases in property taxes and water/sewer fees.”