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EXCLUSIVE: While the House successfully moved to rein in lawmakers’ stock trading, a California Republican is targeting what she says is another avenue for congressional self-enrichment, citing members whose wealth has multiplied over the years.
Rep. Young Kim’s Stop Congressional Self-Enrichment Resolution comes after a successful GOP-led effort in July that imposed restrictions on stock purchases and requires several days’ notice before stock sales. It also comes as Americans across the political spectrum remain frustrated by many lawmakers’ rapidly growing wealth while in public office.
“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 apartment building that a member or member’s spouse or member’s children owns,” Kim told Fox News Digital.
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WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 10: Representative Young Kim, a Republican from California, speaks during a hearing March 10, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Blinken is expected to take questions about the Biden administration’s priorities for U.S. foreign policy. (Photo by Ting Shen-Pool/Getty Images)
“And with the federal funds that the member brings and build the park nearby or community center nearby, it could increase the property value and therefore indirectly benefiting the member and their family members. Maybe asking to build a road up to rural land the member owns.”
Her new push would cover all material financial interests — direct or indirect — that benefit people beyond the lawmaker themselves.
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Then-Sens. Patrick J. Toomey, R-Pa., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., speak out against earmarks in 2011. (Alex Wong)
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 bill would extend that requirement to immediate family members and indirect financial interests, such as nearby property values.
“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.”
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“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.”
Citing the “Bridge to Nowhere” project in Alaska’s Inside Passage in the early 2000s as a symbol of concerns over earmarks, Kim said the ensuing decade-long moratorium curbed abuse.
Kim said safeguards put in place after the moratorium have helped, but argued members are still able to provide themselves with indirect benefits. She reiterated that she is not targeting any individuals.
While there are now apps out there like the “Pelosi Stock Tracker” and others that let retail investors see which stocks are being bought or sold by which members, Kim said her effort does not target any one colleague.
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“And, this is not in any way discouraging members to fight for their districts and bring in the appropriate taxpayer dollars for projects near their districts,” she said.
“That is so important,” she said, pointing to funding she brought to Orange County to prevent and recover from recent wildfires, among other interests for her constituents.
“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.”
Innumerable lawmakers have come under fire over the decades for their earmarking prowess.
In one notable case, then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., faced criticism in 2006 over a $207 million earmark to build a parkway near property he owned.
Amid the kerfuffle, an attorney for the leader pushed back on what he called a “libelous” allegation from a good-government group about it at the time. The attorney said criticizing Hastert for the project was akin to “complaining about a purchase in Alexandria based on renovations at the Capitol.”
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In 2023, the Boston Globe reported that earmarks secured by Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., benefited a health center in Boston where his wife was employed.
$2 million went to the South Boston Community Health Center, and another $1 million went to a foundation where Lynch’s wife was an unpaid director. Fox News Digital reached out to Lynch for comment.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., previously secured earmarks totaling $3.5 million for George Mason University, where his wife had served as interim president and later as a professor.
The earmarks “are in no way influenced by Secretary Holton,” a Kaine spokesperson told The Messenger news outlet at the time – referencing former Virginia Education Secretary Anne Holton.
“Secretary Holton has no involvement in the CDS process, and no involvement in the George Mason CDS requests,” the spokesperson added, using an acronym for ‘Congressionally Directed Spending’, the Senate’s term for earmarks. “Senator Kaine and Secretary Holton have not discussed the requests.”
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With the Senate next to take up stock trading prohibitions, Kim’s bill stands as a gap closer, she said, on a practice that has rare emphatic bipartisan support.
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Fox News Digital’s Aaron Kliegman contributed to this report.