(TNND) \u2014 A new House resolution seeks to bar members of Congress from using taxpayer-funded earmarks to enrich themselves while in office.<\/p>\n
The resolution<\/a>, announced last week, comes on the heels of a House-passed ban on lawmaker stock trading.<\/p>\n But the stock trading ban<\/a> has stalled in the Senate.<\/p>\n And Casey Burgat, the legislative affairs program director at George Washington University, said the new resolution on earmarks might be an even tougher lift for lawmakers.<\/p>\n The newly announced bipartisan resolution seeks to close a \u201cloophole\u201d in House rules requiring members seeking community project funding, or earmarks, to certify that neither they nor their spouse have financial conflicts of interest in the project at hand.<\/p>\n The \u201cStop Congressional Self-Enrichment Resolution\u201d would expand that certification to cover immediate family members and any entity in which a lawmaker holds a material financial interest. It seeks to guard against both direct and indirect financial benefits for lawmakers.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen politicians are busy lining their own pockets, how can they ever understand or focus on the pocketbook issues Americans face every single day?\u201d Republican Rep. Young Kim, of California, said in a news release.<\/p>\n She introduced the resolution alongside Pennsylvania Republican Brian Fitzpatrick and Maine Democrat Jared Golden.<\/p>\n Golden said the resolution would \u201cstrengthen the anti-corruption guardrails\u201d around earmarks to ensure federal dollars are used to benefit community members, not lawmakers.<\/p>\n