Robert P. Henri for Congress

Robert P. Henri, Independent for U.S. House in OK-05. Reforms Americans want. Ethics and accountability in government. Working-class candidate. Problem-solver.

[Robert P. Henri for Congress @ProDueCourse]

Four officials at three agencies were doing the job they were nominated for, before the Senate ever approved them. That's not a technicality. That's the whole confirmation process being walked around in plain sight.

Here's the mechanism: a law called the Federal Vacancies Reform Act prohibits most nominees from performing the duties of a position they haven't been confirmed for yet. The Senate confirmation process exists so that someone, elected by voters, signs off before a person exercises that kind of authority. When a nominee just shows up and starts doing the job anyway, that check gets bypassed entirely.

Politico identified this happening at the EPA, the State Department, and the White House Office of Management and Budget. Legal experts told Politico the moves appear to skirt the law, even if direct violation is unclear. The intent of the law, they said, was being defied.

This is exactly what Reform 11: Confirmation and Appointment Transparency, Reform 1: Financial Disclosure Modernization, and Reform 2: the contracting and procurement rule are built to address.

https://t.co/JdO4xAk3AN

[Robert P. Henri for Congress @ProDueCourse]

I got a Judicial Conference official who told the chief justice his staff was ordered "to present the data in a way to mitigate the damage" during a Senate audit of judges' travel records. That is not a clerical error. That is damage control inside the institution that polices itself.

Here is the mechanism: the judiciary writes its own ethics rules, audits its own compliance, and when Congress tried to restrict gifts and travel, those bills never passed. When the rules were finally updated, internal documents obtained by ProPublica show a staff attorney emailed a subordinate explaining the goal was to avoid "drawing bright lines." Vaguer rules mean fewer violations on paper.

Jeremy Fogel, a former federal judge who served on the Financial Disclosure Committee for seven years, told ProPublica: "The more reasonable interpretation was that the law does and did cover those types of gifts." The Ethics in Government Act requires accurate annual financial disclosures. That requirement exists. Enforcement does not.

Project Due Course Reform 5 ends self-policing by creating independent ethics oversight.

https://t.co/JdO4xAk3AN

[Robert P. Henri for Congress @ProDueCourse]

Former FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones and lobbyist Michael Dowling have been reindicted on 22 criminal charges, including bribery and evidence tampering, in Ohio's $60 million corruption scheme. A previous trial ended in a mistrial. This is round two.

Here is the mechanism: a utility CEO and his chief lobbyist allegedly ran a criminal organization to funnel $60 million in bribes. When the first prosecution collapsed in a mistrial, Ohio AG Dave Yost and Summit County Prosecutor Elliot Kolkovich brought 22 new charges, including conspiracy, telecommunications fraud, and 14 counts of record tampering against Dowling alone.

This is exactly the corrupt pipeline Project Due Course targets. Reform 1 bans corporate PAC money to federal candidates. Reform 2 requires full financial disclosure so voters can trace who funded whom. Reform 3 closes the revolving door between lobbyists and the offices they lobby. Reform 8 mandates real penalties for obstruction and evidence tampering by officials and their associates.

https://t.co/JdO4xAk3AN

[Robert P. Henri for Congress @ProDueCourse]

Jeffery Hildebrand gave millions to Trump after the Biden EPA issued methane rules that would have cost his oil company, Hilcorp, serious money. Trump then put a former Hilcorp lobbyist in charge of rolling those rules back. That is the transaction. Read it twice.

Here is the mechanism: a regulation threatens a donor's bottom line, the donor writes checks, the administration installs the donor's former lobbyist at the agency writing the regulation. The public absorbs the environmental costs. The donor absorbs the savings.

ProPublica found Hildebrand and his wife have given more than $15 million to Trump and other Republicans in federal races since 2020. His wife was named ambassador to Costa Rica. A former Hilcorp lobbyist now leads the EPA rollback effort, with help from trade groups Hildebrand backs.

Reform 3: Revolving Door Restrictions would block officials from regulating industries they recently lobbied for. Reform 7: Donor Disclosure and Influence Tracking would put this timeline on the public record before the rule changes, not after.

This is exactly the system Project Due Course is built to dismantle.

Want to see all 18 reforms?

https://t.co/JdO4xAk3AN

[Robert P. Henri for Congress @ProDueCourse]

A White House aide intervened to secure a $620 million Pentagon loan for a startup connected to Donald Trump Jr., according to ProPublica. Lawmakers are now demanding answers. I think you deserve to know how this kind of access works.

Here's the mechanism: a presidential aide steps into a federal procurement process, a connected startup gets a nine-figure loan, and the public finds out only because journalists investigated. No automatic disclosure. No independent review trigger. No structural stop.

That's exactly what Project Due Course targets:

Reform #2 closes the revolving door between executive staff and entities tied to the president's family.

Reform #8 requires disclosure when a White House official contacts a federal agency about a pending contract or loan decision.

Reform #12 mandates independent review of federal awards where a conflict of interest is alleged.

Reform #15 creates enforceable penalties when procurement is influenced outside the documented process.

Sens. Warren, Blumenthal, and Hirono, along with Reps. Crow and Levin, sent a formal letter. That's oversight working the way it should.

https://t.co/JdO4xAk3AN

[Robert P. Henri for Congress @ProDueCourse]

I want to be straight with you: a $620M Pentagon loan went to a startup linked to Donald Trump Jr., and ProPublica found it was the only deal among dozens initiated by a top White House aide, Peter Navarro, who is a friend of Trump Jr.'s.

That's the mechanism worth understanding. Of the many companies the Pentagon was reviewing for funding at the time, Vulcan's was the only one where a senior presidential adviser personally made the request. Defense officials and the company both pushed back on cronyism concerns, but the Pentagon's own records, reviewed by ProPublica, tell a different story.

This is exactly why I support Project Due Course Reform 2 (mandatory recusal when officials have personal ties to applicants), Reform 8 (public disclosure of who initiates federal funding requests), Reform 12 (independent review of executive-branch involvement in contract awards), and Reform 15 (real enforcement when those rules are broken).

Right now, nothing in federal law required Navarro to disclose that he initiated this specific request.

https://t.co/JdO4xAk3AN

[Robert P. Henri for Congress @ProDueCourse]

A hospital lobbying group just hired a former GOP Senate health aide specifically to influence Republican lawmakers on Medicaid cuts. Their CEO is a former Democratic congressional aide. Both parties, one industry. That is exactly the access problem Project Due Course Reforms 3 and 7 address. Look up https://t.co/YDwbZqnJRt.
Source: Politico

[Robert P. Henri for Congress @ProDueCourse]

Private prison companies GEO Group, CoreCivic, and MTC spent at least $812,500 lobbying federal officials in just the first quarter of 2018, according to a Prison Legal News review of federal disclosure records.

Many of the lobbyists they hired were former senior congressional staffers, White House staffers, and members of Congress.

Here is the mechanism: a former official builds relationships and expertise inside government, then takes a private-sector job using those same relationships to influence the institution they just left. The public paid for that expertise. The private prison industry then purchases access to it.

Project Due Course Reform 7 targets the revolving door directly, requiring cooling-off periods before former officials can lobby their former agencies or chambers. Reform 3 strengthens lobbying disclosure so firms can't file vague reports that obscure what they're actually paying for. Reform 2 addresses campaign contribution limits so that lobbying access isn't reinforced by donor leverage at election time.

Private prison companies profit from incarceration.

[Robert P. Henri for Congress @ProDueCourse]

The Senate has a tradition of fast-tracking confirmation of its own members, no questions asked. When Noem left, Senator Markwayne Mullin got the express lane treatment while outsiders face months of scrutiny. It's the ultimate insider game. I'm running for Congress to end confirmation processes that put Senate club membership over proper vetting. (https://t.co/Fcb0A8EBdk) The Senate club protects itself while the country gets the leftovers.

[Robert P. Henri for Congress @ProDueCourse]

The FAA Chief is under investigation for allegedly violating his ethics agreement by keeping financial ties to an airline he once ran. While we're told ethics matter, enforcement is a joke. I'm running for Congress to pass real ethics enforcement with teeth, not toothless agreements that officials ignore when money is on the line. Ethics agreements without enforcement are just suggestions with letterhead. (Politico) https://t.co/HycQzCY7uF

[Robert P. Henri for Congress @ProDueCourse]

Independent. First-time candidate. No big donors. The smart money says I lose. The smart money has been losing this country for forty years. I'm running for Congress to break the incentive system that rewards safe bets over real solutions. They call it the smart bet. I call it the same old failure. (https://t.co/444Q9jn9yt)

[Robert P. Henri for Congress @ProDueCourse]

The FEC hosts webinars for PACs while working families get priced out of democracy. I'm running for Congress to eliminate PACs and restore one person, one vote. https://t.co/ddYPb5xsf5

[Robert P. Henri for Congress @ProDueCourse]

The Federal Election Commission has been shut down for a full year. Can't investigate campaign violations, can't issue fines, can't enforce election laws. Trump's administration put the FEC in this position on May 1, 2025, and here we are. (https://t.co/vL4k42BGom) I'm running for Congress to restore real enforcement of campaign finance laws so dark money can't buy elections in Oklahoma. A democracy without election enforcement is just an auction.

[Robert P. Henri for Congress @ProDueCourse]

The Voting Rights Act protected minority representation for 60 years. Today the Supreme Court gutted Section 2, the last tool to challenge racial gerrymandering. Both parties watched it happen. I'm running for Congress to make redistricting independent.

In 1970, there were about 1,500 Black elected officials in this country. Today, more than 10,000. That didn't happen because politicians had a change of heart. It happened because the law gave communities a tool to fight back when their representation was carved up.

The Supreme Court has been dismantling that tool in stages. In 2013, Shelby County v. Holder killed preclearance, the requirement that states with a history of discrimination get approval before changing voting rules. That opened the floodgates for restrictive election laws across the country. Today they finished the job. The court ruled that Section 2 only covers intentional discrimination, which, as Justice Kagan wrote in her dissent, sets "an almost insurmountable barrier" for any voting rights challenge.

What does that mean in practice? It means state legislatures can now redraw districts to dilute minority voting power and call it partisanship instead of racism. It means the 10,000 Black elected officials who got there because communities had legal tools to fight gerrymandering are now standing on ground the court just pulled out from under them. It means every level of government, from school boards to Congress, just lost the one law that kept mapmakers honest.

I'm running for Congress in OK-5 to push independent redistricting commissions, because when politicians draw their own maps, voters lose every time.

https://t.co/BykhqZk7VP

[Robert P. Henri for Congress @ProDueCourse]

Every day, decisions that shape your life are made behind closed doors. No transcripts. No accountability. Just power operating in darkness. I'm running for Congress to drag these processes into the light where voters can see what's being done in their name. Democracy dies in darkness, but it's murdered by design.

[Robert P. Henri for Congress @ProDueCourse]

There was a time when Congress worked for everyday Americans. Then corporate money flooded in through loopholes and now our voices get drowned out by whoever writes the biggest check. Project Due Course aims to flip that script and return power where it belongs. #WeThePeople

[Robert P. Henri for Congress @ProDueCourse]

Lobbyists have zero incentive to follow disclosure rules because enforcement is a joke. 3,622 missed reports in 9 years, but only 1 paralegal to handle it. They built a system where breaking the rules costs less than following them.