GOP senator plans to introduce FAUCI Act after clash at hearing

Republican Sen. Roger Marshall (Kan.) plans to introduce a bill named after  Anthony Fauci after he clashed with the nation’s top infectious diseases expert at a Senate hearing this week. 

Marshall will be introducing the Financial Accountability for Uniquely Compensated Individuals (FAUCI) Act after he said Fauci’s records were not readily accessible to the public, a spokesperson for the senator told The Hill. 

The FAUCI Act would require the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) website to provide the financial records of administration officials like Fauci and a list of those in the government whose financial records are not public.

The move comes after Fauci was caught on a hot mic calling Marshall a “moron” for not knowing the Chief White House medical adviser’s financial records were public. 

“I don’t understand why you’re asking me that question,” Fauci said at the hearing after being questioned by Marshall about the records. “My financial disclosure is public knowledge and has been so for the last 37 years or so.”

“All you have to do is ask for it,” Fauci added. “You’re so misinformed, it’s extraordinary.” 

The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit journalism center, found that Marshall was incorrect about Fauci’s public finances being private, but said it is hard to obtain them. 

A reporter for the center wrote that to get the records she had submitted a completed OGE form 201 to the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) Freedom of Information office and then “politely badgered” the NIH office after not hearing back about her request for a month.

She said in total the process had taken more than two months.

“The NIH also chose to give the disclosure to me under the Freedom of Information Act, which they didn’t need to do and caused the document to be partially redacted. (Though most of the information about Fauci’s income, gifts and investments in 2019 is still there for all to see.),” the reporter stated.