The following is from a New York Times editorial:
The House Financial Services Committee has grown so large that a highly unusual fourth row of seats had to be installed in the committee room. Every term, scores of members, particularly freshmen, demand a seat on the panel — not because they have a burning interest in regulating banks and Wall Street, but because they know that they will be able raise much more money if one of the 61 seats has their name on it.
Financial Services has become known as "the cash committee" because interest groups donate more money to its members than to those of any other House committee.
More than $10 million has been given to its members just this year, and most of it has come from the big names the committee oversees.
Contributors included employees of Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, the Credit Union National Association, the Investment Company Institute, Wells Fargo and many of the biggest accounting firms and insurance companies.
"We make an investment, and we are hopeful that investment produces a return," an industry lobbyist said.
The sleazy flow of cash cries out for a public financing system for congressional elections that would give more power to small donors, along the lines of the Empowering Citizens Act, introduced by two Democrats, David Price of North Carolina and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. But the bill, opposed by Republicans, is going nowhere.
At a minimum, committee members should be required to disclose every time they vote on an issue that affects donors from which they have accepted campaign cash.
Voters, at least, should know why their lawmakers are so eager to make friends with the banks.