Sara Jacobs’ plan to make the government more ethical and transparent

At the root of so many of the issues that we are facing are governance structures not up to the task at hand, and a lack of faith in our institutions and our leaders. While Donald Trump epitomizes the worst of these issues, he by no means is the only member of our government with ethics concerns. The need to increase transparency, create stricter ethics rules, and reform lobbying and disclosure requirements spans our whole country — from Washington, D.C., to right here in San Diego. That’s why Sara Jacobs is releasing a plan to make our government more ethical and transparent.

Eliminate Conflicts of Interest. Sara believes all Members of Congress should eliminate any conflicts of interest they may possess by putting all investments into a blind trust. Sara has already committed to doing so upon becoming a Member of Congress. Sara also believes that we should ban Members of Congress from serving on corporate or any for-profit boards, regardless of compensation.

Lobbying Reform. So much of the dysfunction in Washington, state capitals, and local governments across the country stems from the undue influence of lobbyists. That’s why Sara believes that Members of Congress should be banned from becoming lobbyists after leaving office, and that congressional staff and employees of federal agencies should be banned for at least five years. She supports legislation that prohibits federal registered lobbyists from contributing to or bundling contributions for federal campaigns, and strengthening the definition of who must register as a lobbyist. She believes that no Member of Congress should receive contributions from industries that are regulated by the committees on which they sit. American lobbyists should not be allowed to accept money from foreign governments. And we should re-define an “official act” to make sure lobbyists are unable to give gifts or payments in exchange for government action.

In order to enforce this, Sara believes that we must give the Office of Government Ethics more funding and authority for enforcement and oversight. Sara also believes that lobbyists at every level of government should be required to disclose gifts and payments of any amount.

Congressional Calendar Transparency. Sara will publicly post her official schedule as a Member of Congress. She also believes we need to strengthen open records laws so that information is more easily accessible to the press and public.

Campaign Finance Reform. Sara supports encouraging more participation in our democracy by supporting small dollar matching programs and publicly financed elections. Additionally, companies should have to disclose their political spending to shareholders. And most importantly, we need to prevent corporations from having unlimited sway over our elected officials — which is why Sara supports a Constitutional Amendment to overturn Citizens United.

We also need to update disclosure requirements for online political advertising to apply the same rules as TV, radio, and satellite ads.