Government accountability and transparency? These are motivating words for ProPublica reporters. But a wide range of legislation we reviewed in partnership with many of our Local Reporting Network newsrooms shows that 2025 brought a weakening of ethics regulations in statehouses across the country.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers tried to push through bills to tighten gift limits, toughen conflict-of-interest provisions and expand financial disclosure reporting requirements. While legislation strengthening ethics oversight did pass in some places, our reporting found, we also revealed that time and again, bills were derailed in committee, on the floor of state legislatures or, in a few cases, by a governor’s veto.
Why does it matter? Because elected officials are supposed to be accountable to the people they serve. Our reporting shows the dismantling of that notion by lawmakers across multiple states. |
