Congressman Ro Khanna from California’s 17th District introduced a new resolution in Congress that aims to clean up corruption among lawmakers in D.C.
“Our political system should not be for sale. Trust in the government has been declining for decades, and Congress must act with urgency to rebuild it,” he said. “The Political Reform Resolution acknowledges that there are tangible legislative solutions for these problems, and that we must pursue them as a comprehensive reform plan to rein in corruption.”
Specifically, the resolution addresses the mechanisms through which current lawmakers unethically serve their own interests and those of wealthy campaign donors because of lax campaign finance and stock-trading regulations. The resolution also takes measures to prevent former lawmakers from influencing policy through lobbying positions and calls for more accountability within the judicial setup too.
Some of the suggested measures in the resolution are 12-year term limits for Members of Congress; a ban on Members of Congress from holding and trading individual stocks during the Member’s tenure; a lifetime ban on lobbying for Members of Congress; and 18-year term limits and regular appointments for future Supreme Court Justices, requiring a new Justice to be added and another to rotate off every two years. Read the full text of the resolution here.