The House already cracked down on stock trading. Now a California Republican wants to close what she calls the next avenue for congressional self-enrichment: earmarks that indirectly pad lawmakers' bank accounts.
The House already cracked down on stock trading. Now a California Republican wants to close what she calls the next avenue for congressional self-enrichment: earmarks that indirectly pad lawmakers' bank accounts.
Rep. Young Kim introduced the Stop Congressional Self-Enrichment Resolution, a measure aimed at extending existing conflict-of-interest rules for earmarks to cover immediate family members and indirect financial benefits. The resolution follows a successful GOP-led effort in July that imposed restrictions on stock purchases and required several days' notice before stock sales.
Current House rules require members requesting an earmark to certify that neither they nor their spouses have a financial interest in the recipient. Kim's resolution would widen that net to cover immediate family members and indirect financial interests, such as nearby property values that rise because of federally funded projects.
Kim laid out the mechanics in an interview with Fox News Digital.
"It could be earmarking a nonprofit organization where a member's spouse sits on the board of directors or board of trustees, so it will indirectly benefit the family. Or it could earmark for a park at, let's say, an apartment building that a member or member's spouse or member's children owns."
She described how federal dollars steered toward a park, community center, or road near property a lawmaker owns could inflate that property's value, enriching the member or their relatives without any direct payment changing hands.
"The days of members thinking that 'I can use the community project funding request or bringing the earmarks for my district and get filthy rich off of it', those days are numbered."
Kim framed her push against a backdrop of widespread public anger over lawmakers who arrive in Washington with modest means and leave far wealthier. Apps like the "Pelosi Stock Tracker" already let retail investors monitor which stocks members buy and sell. The stock trading ban addressed one piece of that frustration. Kim said earmark abuse is another.
She stressed that her resolution does not single out any colleague.
"This is a good time because we see Americans are sick and tired of watching politicians getting filthy rich while average Americans are worrying about making ends meet and stretch every dollar that they earn."
Kim also made clear she is not trying to discourage members from fighting for their districts. She pointed to funding she brought to Orange County for wildfire prevention and recovery as the kind of earmark work constituents expect.
"That's what we are sent to do, fight for our district, but not at the expense of, you know, enriching. I mean, not at the expense of hurting our very constituents that we are trying to support while we are lining our pockets, because there are too many career politicians in Washington looking out for no one but themselves."
Kim cited the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" project in Alaska's Inside Passage in the early 2000s as a symbol of earmark abuse. That controversy helped trigger a decade-long moratorium on earmarks. Kim said the safeguards put in place after the moratorium ended have helped, but argued that members can still channel indirect benefits to themselves and their families under current rules.
The pattern she described is not hypothetical. Several past and present lawmakers have faced scrutiny over earmarks that appeared to benefit their personal financial interests.
In 2006, then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert faced criticism over a $207 million earmark to build a parkway near property he owned. An attorney for Hastert pushed back at the time on what he called a "libelous" allegation from a good-government group, saying that criticizing Hastert for the project was akin to "complaining about a purchase in Alexandria based on renovations at the Capitol."
In 2023, the Boston Globe reported that earmarks secured by Rep. Stephen Lynch benefited a health center in Boston where his wife was employed. Two million dollars went to the South Boston Community Health Center, and another $1 million went to a foundation where Lynch's wife served as an unpaid director. Fox News Digital reached out to Lynch for comment.
Sen. Tim Kaine previously secured earmarks totaling $3.5 million for George Mason University, where his wife, former Virginia Education Secretary Anne Holton, had served as interim president and later as a professor. A Kaine spokesperson told The Messenger that the earmarks "are in no way influenced by Secretary Holton."
"Secretary Holton has no involvement in the CDS process, and no involvement in the George Mason CDS requests," the spokesperson added. "Senator Kaine and Secretary Holton have not discussed the requests."
The Senate still needs to take up its own version of stock trading restrictions. Kim positioned her resolution as a gap closer that complements the stock trading ban, addressing a form of self-dealing that current rules leave open.
The political tailwinds are real. Opposition to congressional self-enrichment is one of the few issues that draws emphatic bipartisan support from voters. Whether that voter energy translates into institutional action on earmark reform remains an open question.
Banning stock trades was the easy headline. Closing the earmark loophole tests whether Congress is willing to police the quieter ways its members build wealth on the public's dime.
