Rep. Cori Bush’s Campaign Faces Penalties for Missing Financial Disclosure Deadline

Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-Mo.) speaks during her election-night watch party on Nov. 3, 2020 at campaign headquarters in St. Louis, Mo. (Photo by Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images)

The campaign for Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) has missed the most recent deadline for disclosing her committee’s finances for the second quarter, which could result in penalties.

The Missouri Democrat’s campaign follows the same quarterly registration schedule as other politicians. This past Saturday at midnight was the deadline for submitting the most recent reports detailing activity from the beginning of April to the end of June.

The most recent filing of the controversial ‘Squad’ member does not exist in the Federal Election Commission (FEC) database. Monday morning, the FEC press office verified to Fox News Digital that her campaign had not yet submitted the report.

Ms. Bush’s failure to file on time could result in fines for her committee, though they are typically trivial and can range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars contingent on a number of variables, including when the report is ultimately filed.

“If the Commission finds ’reason to believe' (RTB) a committee failed to file on time, the FEC will notify that committee in writing of the finding and the penalty amount,” the FEC’s website states.

“Committees have 40 days to either pay the fine or submit a written challenge,” the site says. “The Commission will then make the appropriate final determination ... Treasury currently charges a fee of 30 percent of the civil money penalty amount for its collection services, or 32 percent if the age of the debt is greater than or equal to two years old. The fee is added to the original civil money penalty.”

Other Democrats Fundraising

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) reported that his campaign for the U.S. Senate raised a record $8.1 million in the second quarter, following his expulsion from the House Intelligence Community and subsequent censure related to the Russiagate scandal.

More than 144,000 unique donors contributed to Schiff’s campaign during the second quarter, according to a post to Twitter by Schiff’s campaign manager, Brad Elkins.

Mr. Elkins told reporters that Mr.Schiff surpassed Sen. Raphael Warnock’s (D-Ga.) record of $7.2 million raised in the second quarter of 2021 with his fundraising windfall, bringing his campaign’s cash-on-hand to $29.5 million.

President Joe Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign raised over $72 million in the second quarter, which is more than his rivals but falls short compared to previous presidential campaigns.

Although these are substantial numbers, they are lower than those of previous American presidents at this point in the election cycle during their reelection campaigns.

According to the Associated Press, former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC) raised $105 million in the second quarter of 2019.

Previously, in the second quarter of 2011, when he launched his second presidential campaign, former president Barack Obama raised $85.6 million, not accounting for inflation.

Biden has raised more money in contributions than his Democratic adversary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his chief Republican rival Donald Trump.

The Trump campaign reported on July 5 that the former president raised more than $35 million in the second quarter, which is less than half of what Mr. Biden raised. However, Mr. Trump raised nearly twice as much money in the second quarter as he did in the first.

Bush’s Push for Reparations

Ms. Bush has recently voiced strong opinions on financial issues, introducing a resolution on May 17 calling for $14 trillion in reparations over the U.S. history of slavery.

The resolution was put forward in conjunction with awareness of a measure H.R. 40, which has been introduced in every Congress for decades. The measure would establish a federal commission tasked with studying the issue of reparations for slavery.

The resolution states that “the United States has a moral and legal obligation to provide reparations for the enslavement of Africans and its lasting harm on the lives of millions of Black people in the United States.”

“Black people in our country cannot wait any longer for our government to begin addressing each and every one of the extraordinary bits of harm, all of the harm it has caused since the founding that it continues to perpetuate each and every day all across our communities, all across this country,” said Bush at a May 17 news conference.

“When the black-white wealth gap is $14 trillion, it’s unjust, and it wouldn’t happen in a just and fair and equitable society,” she added.

“Those are not the natural consequences of human society, none of that,” Ms. Bush continued. “They are directly caused by our federal government’s role in the enslavement and exploitation of Africans or black people throughout our history.”

Ms Bush added that the issue of reparations is “not just a matter of our country’s history, but it is a matter for which America must provide reparations if we desire a prosperous future.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) spoke at the same news conference, saying “Reparations is necessary toward really true equity.”

“We hear the Biden administration and so many others talk about that word ‘equity,’” she said. “They need to make sure that reparations is part of the movement toward equitable distribution of resources.”

Ms. Bush’s office did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’s request for comment.