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In the 110th and 111th Congress, we have made significant strides in reforming the appropriations process to make member project requests more transparent and responsible. This year, we expanded our commitment to disclosing earmark recipients, their purpose, and certifying that the requesting member of congress will not personally financially benefit and required members to make all project requests public on each member’s website.

However, there is currently no rule that prohibits a Member’s campaign from accepting campaign contributions from organizations for which the Member is making appropriations requests. This practice has the potential to create at least the appearance of impropriety, and at worse, an ethical and legal dilemma. Worse still, the mixture of earmarks and campaign contributions can erode the people’s confidence in the actions and motivations of their elected representatives.

Given the immense benefits that federal investments can provide in our districts – creating jobs, improving public facilities and infrastructure, or providing vital services – we must close this loophole and ensure a clean and accountable system.

The CLEAR Act (Clean Law for Earmark Accountability Reform Act) would ban Congressional campaigns from accepting campaign contributions from any senior executive or registered lobbyist representing an entity for which a Member of Congress has requested earmarked federal funding in that election cycle.

This is a matter of right and wrong. It is wrong that legislators request earmarks for companies or organizations and then turn around and take campaign contributions from the very same entities. It isn’t against the law now, but it should be. We need to hold Congress to a higher standard.