# Outland News — Congressional Accountability Project
## Findings Summary — Updated 2026-06-02

*This document supersedes findings_summary_2026-05-30.md with refreshed data.*

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## I. DATABASE STATUS (as of 2026-06-02)

| Table | Records | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| fact_votes | 2,511,624 | 115th–119th Congress |
| fact_fec | 591,855 | 2022–2026 cycles, 536 members |
| fact_ptrs | 27,596 | 2012-06-14 to 2202-09-19 |
| dim_members | 536 current | 119th Congress (436 House, 100 Senate) |

**FEC Coverage:** $1336M in PAC contributions and $242M in individual contributions (≥$1,000) documented, cycles 2024–2026.

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## II. TOP CONFLICT MEMBERS (by overlap score)

| Member | Party | Chamber | State | Overlap Trades | Est. Value | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josh Gottheimer | D | House | NJ | 604 | $161.0M | 2001.7 |
| Jefferson Shreve | R | House | IN | 60 | $2.5M | 48.5 |
| Ron Wyden | D | Senate | OR | 70 | $3.0M | 42.1 |
| Shelley Moore Capito | R | Senate | WV | 130 | $1.1M | 40.9 |
| Kevin Hern | R | House | OK | 51 | $2.0M | 36.8 |
| Robert P. Bresnahan, Jr. | R | House | PA | 84 | $0.8M | 32.7 |
| Lisa C. McClain | R | House | MI | 88 | $0.7M | 30.6 |
| John Hoeven | R | Senate | ND | 40 | $4.6M | 29.8 |
| Sheldon Whitehouse | D | Senate | RI | 82 | $1.2M | 27.9 |
| Thomas R. Suozzi | D | House | NY | 62 | $1.7M | 26.3 |

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## III. SENATE ATTENDANCE — 119th Congress (highest miss rates)

| Senator | Party | State | Miss% (119th) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ruben Gallego | D | AZ | 12.9% |
| Thom Tillis | R | NC | 11.6% |
| Mitch McConnell | R | KY | 9.2% |
| Tammy Duckworth | D | IL | 7.3% |
| Bernard Sanders | I | VT | 7.3% |

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## IV. ORIGINAL FINDINGS (2026-05-30)

## I. DATABASE STATUS

| Table | Records | Status |
|---|---|---|
| fact_votes | 2,511,524 | Complete — 115th through 119th Congress |
| fact_fec | 591,855 | Complete — 516 of 536 members, cycles 2022/2024/2026 |
| fact_ptrs | 26,613 | Complete — House 2015–2025, Senate 2012–2020 |
| dim_members | 536 current | Complete — 436 House, 100 Senate |
| dim_committee_members | 3,879 | Complete |

**FEC Coverage:** $871M in PAC contributions and $330M in individual contributions ($1,000+) documented across 516 current members, 2022–2026 cycles.

**Known gap:** Senate PTR data cuts off at December 2020. House PTR data is current through November 2025. Senate-specific trade analysis is limited to pre-2021 activity for senators.

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## II. CROSS-REFERENCE FINDINGS

### Members with all three signals: missed votes + active trading + significant PAC money

| Member | Party | Chamber | Miss% 119th | Miss% Lifetime | Congresses | Trades (2023+) | PAC \$ (2024/26) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josh Gottheimer | D | House-NJ | 14.5% (80/551) | 3.9% (194/4941) | 115th–119th | 781 | \$2.84M |
| Daniel Goldman | D | House-NY | 10.0% (55/551) | 7.1% (127/1786) | 118th–119th | 651 | \$1.60M |
| Maria Elvira Salazar | R | House-FL | 13.1% (72/551) | 7.3% (202/2774) | 117th–119th | 15 | \$2.58M |
| Byron Donalds | R | House-FL | 6.7% (37/551) | 5.6% (157/2782) | 117th–119th | 63 | \$1.83M |
| Nancy Pelosi | D | House-CA | 10.3% (57/551) | 9.7% (312/3212) | 115th–119th | 11 | \$0.83M |
| Thomas Kean Jr. | R | House-NJ | 19.6% (108/551) | 6.5% (116/1786) | 118th–119th | 41 | (no FEC data) |

**Note:** Two figures were corrected from an earlier data pull: Goldman revised from 10.2% → 10.0% (55 absences, not 56); Pelosi revised from 10.5% → 10.3% (57 absences out of 551). Both corrections verified directly against fact_votes. Kean's lifetime 6.5% reflects only 118th–119th Congress (first term); his 119th spike is the significant figure.

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## III. PRIMARY TARGET: JOSH GOTTHEIMER (D-NJ)

### Why he leads the list

Gottheimer presents the clearest documented overlap between congressional committee oversight, active financial sector trading, and financial industry PAC funding of any current member in the dataset.

### Attendance
| Congress | Votes | Missed | Miss% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 115th | 1,207 | 16 | 1.3% |
| 116th | 952 | 5 | 0.5% |
| 117th | 996 | 9 | 0.9% |
| 118th | 1,235 | 84 | **6.8%** |
| 119th | 551 | 80 | **14.5%** |
| **Lifetime** | **4,941** | **194** | **3.9%** |

- **Lifetime aggregate (115th–119th): 3.9% miss rate** — pulled down by near-perfect 115th–117th attendance
- **119th Congress isolated: 14.5% miss rate (80 of 551 votes)** — accelerating absence while running for NJ Governor
- Trend is the story: miss rate rose 10× from baseline to current term

### Trading Activity
- **1,720 total PTR trades on record** — highest volume House trader in the dataset
- **781 trades in 2023–2025 alone** — approximately 4–5 trades per week
- Estimated value: **\$85.7 million** in transactions (midpoint estimates)
- Almost exclusively in \$1,001–\$15,000 range — the lowest mandatory disclosure bracket

### Financial Sector Trades While Sitting on Financial Services Committee
Gottheimer is a member of the **House Committee on Financial Services** and sits on three subcommittees directly relevant to the companies he trades:
- Subcommittee on Capital Markets
- Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence
- Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions

Documented trades in companies directly regulated by or reporting to the Financial Services Committee:

| Ticker | Company | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| V | Visa Inc. | 10+ trades 2023–2025, repeated buy/sell cycles |
| SCHW | Charles Schwab | 6+ trades 2023–2025 |
| KKR | KKR & Co. | 6+ trades 2023–2025 |
| BX | Blackstone Inc. | 4+ trades 2023–2025 |
| MS | Morgan Stanley | 4+ trades 2023–2025 |
| ICE | Intercontinental Exchange | 2+ trades |
| BLK | BlackRock | 1 trade |
| GS | Goldman Sachs | 1 trade |
| COF | Capital One | 1 trade |

### PAC Funding — The Morgan Stanley Connection
- **Morgan Stanley PAC: \$1,443,958 in 2024 cycle**
- **Morgan Stanley PAC: \$579,494 in 2026 cycle**
- **Total Morgan Stanley: \$2,023,452** — by far his largest donor
- Gottheimer traded Morgan Stanley stock (MS) while simultaneously receiving over \$2M from Morgan Stanley's PAC
- Additional financial industry PAC donors: JPMorgan Chase, RBC, Prudential, American Bankers Association

### The Pattern
Gottheimer trades financial sector stocks — in companies directly regulated by his committee — while receiving millions from those same companies' PACs, while missing an accelerating share of votes during an election year. Every component of this is documented in federal public records.

**Note:** This is not a legal finding. It is a documented pattern drawn entirely from mandatory federal disclosures. The STOCK Act does not prohibit members from trading stocks. It requires disclosure. The question for journalism is whether the pattern of trading, funding, and committee assignment warrants public scrutiny.

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## IV. SECONDARY TARGETS

### Lisa C. McClain (R-MI) — House Financial Services + Education & Workforce
- 713 trades 2023–present, \$6.7M estimated value
- Sits on **Financial Services Committee** (Capital Markets subcommittee)
- Top trades include JPMorgan Chase (JPM) — 3 purchases while on Financial Services
- Also sits on Education & Workforce Committee — trades healthcare and pharma names
- Miss rate: 2.9% (not notable for attendance, notable for volume)

### Daniel Goldman (D-NY) — House Financial Services
- 651 trades on record, \$30.3M estimated value
- Financial Services Committee member
- Miss rate: 10.2% (56 votes missed in 119th Congress)
- \$1.6M PAC funding 2024/26

### Thomas Kean Jr. (R-NJ)
- **19.6% missed vote rate (119th)** — highest in the cross-reference set (108 of 551 votes)
- Lifetime (118th–119th only, first term): 6.5% — 118th was 0.6%; the spike is entirely 119th
- 41 trades 2023–present
- FEC data not available in current dataset — manual check needed

### Cleo Fields (D-LA) — House Financial Services
- 99 trades 2023–present, \$8.3M estimated value
- Financial Services Committee member
- Miss rate 119th: **0.9% (5/551)** | Lifetime (117th–119th): 1.0%

### Tim Moore (R-NC) — House Financial Services
- 99 trades 2023–present, \$7.5M estimated value
- Financial Services Committee member
- Miss rate 119th: **2.5% (14/551)** | Lifetime (119th only, first term): 2.5%

### Lisa C. McClain (R-MI) — House Financial Services + Education & Workforce
- Miss rate 119th: **0.4% (2/551)** | Lifetime (117th–119th): 1.2% — not notable for attendance

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## V. NOTABLE ANOMALIES

### Seth Moulton (D-MA) — \$49M PAC figure explained
- The \$48.9M in PAC contributions is **ActBlue conduit aggregation** — small individual donors routed through ActBlue's bundling system
- Not a PAC conflict story — distributed small-donor fundraising
- Only 3 trades total, not an active trader
- Miss rate spike (12%) consistent with 2024 presidential campaign activity

### Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
- 10.5% miss rate in 119th Congress
- 11 trades 2023–present, \$12.3M estimated value — high value, low frequency
- Not on Financial Services Committee
- Trades are primarily tech (NVDA, MSFT, Apple adjacent) not regulated sector overlap

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## VI. SENATE PTR GAP

The Senate PTR data cuts off at December 2020 due to the Senate Stock Watcher repository not being updated beyond that date. This means:

- **Senators cannot be evaluated for post-2020 trading conflicts**
- Outreach to Timothy Carambat (Senate Stock Watcher, senatestockwatcher.com) is in progress via X — a fresh data export has been requested
- Senate cross-reference analysis is **incomplete** until this data is obtained
- Manual PTR pulls from efdsearch.senate.gov are the fallback for targeted senators

**High-priority Senate targets for manual pull:**
Based on 2020-and-earlier trading history and current committee assignments:

| Senator | 119th Miss% | Lifetime Miss% | Congresses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) | 12.9% (102/789) | 7.3% (378/5179) | 115th–119th |
| Thom Tillis (R-NC) | 11.5% (91/789) | 7.9% (296/3748) | 115th–119th |
| Mitch McConnell (R-KY) | 9.3% (73/789) | 3.6% (134/3748) | 115th–119th |

Note: Gallego's 118th Congress miss rate was 17.3% (214/1235) — his presidential campaign year. McConnell's lifetime figure is low (good attendance through 117th) but 119th isolated rate of 9.3% reflects health-related absences.

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## VII. RECOMMENDED APPROACH

### What the data supports
The dataset supports **verified, factual, source-cited reporting** on:
1. Members whose trading activity overlaps with their committee oversight jurisdiction
2. Members whose top PAC donors are companies they regulate through committee assignments
3. Members whose attendance has deteriorated — particularly those running for other offices
4. The combination of all three in a single member profile

### What the data does not support
- Any allegation of illegal conduct — STOCK Act violations require intent and insider knowledge, neither of which is in the public record
- Any conclusion about why a member made a specific trade
- Any assertion that PAC donations caused specific votes

### Recommended framing
**"Public records show. You decide."**

The accountability argument is structural, not accusatory:
- The law requires disclosure precisely because conflicts of interest are predictable
- The data shows the pattern
- The question for voters is whether members who trade heavily in sectors they regulate, while receiving funding from those same sectors, should be doing so — regardless of legality

### Publication sequence
1. **Part 1 (ready):** Missed votes — attendance, dereliction, BLS comparison. Data complete.
2. **Part 2 (pending Senate PTR update):** Trading conflicts — Financial Services Committee focus, Gottheimer as lead case
3. **Part 3 (after FEC cross-reference):** Follow the money — PAC funding vs. committee assignments vs. votes on relevant legislation

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## VIII. OPEN ITEMS

| Item | Status | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Senate PTR data post-2020 | Outreach to Carambat in progress | High |
| Scorecard regeneration with FEC data | Ready to run, template patched | Medium |
| Panel domain update (outlandnews.net) | Template patched, awaiting regeneration | Low |
| Part 1 video assembly | Assets ready | Immediate |
| Vault setup on tin-rooflogic.com | 5-minute cPanel job | Immediate |
| Phase 5 bill cross-reference | Not started — bills in DB, analysis not built | Future |

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*Outland News — Congressional Accountability Project*
*All figures derived from federal public records.*
*Nothing in this document constitutes a legal finding.*
*Generated: 2026-05-30*