New Congressional Ethics Rule Causing Confusion

Why am I not surprised by this:

A new congressional ethics rule is causing headaches for lawmakers as they scrambled to meet Thursday's deadline to request funding for projects in their districts.

The new rule, instituted on the first day of the new Democratic-controlled Congress in response to recent scandals, requires members to certify that they have no financial interest in projects they seek to fund.

But the rule is too ambiguous, congressional aides said, making lawmakers unsure of what constitutes a financial interest and whether a favorable comment about a project would be considered a request.

While I think that the idea behind the rule is a good one, the mechanism may not be the best one for two reasons. First, and obviously, it increases the paperwork load and is not really targeted at teh biggest issue, which is the plethora of earmarks. Second, once these certifications are filed, is there anyone who does even a random check of their accuracy? Probably not, thus, the new rule, in addition to being confusing and lacking guidance, does nothing.

A simple solution, which has been proposed, if not already in effect, is attaching a name to any appropriations request. Any request without a name gets stricken from the bill. Not that such a procedure would ever become the norm.