Most federal employees — presidents and their appointees, career civil servants and judicial branch officials, including members of the federal bench — are required by law to divest themselves of any ownership interest in any entity that come under the purview of their agency or court. But the members of Congress who passed that law exempted themselves from such disclosure. Those same members have also exempted themselves from requirements that executive and legislative branch officials recuse themselves from any official proceeding that may create even the appearance of an impropriety. Meanwhile, members of Congress cast hundreds of votes while in session on federal programs that spend billions of tax dollars. Now — surprise! — we learn nearly a dozen senators and representatives have received cash payments from federal farm programs they routinely vote on either in committee or on the floor of Congress. The technical term for this is CONFLICT OF INTEREST.

The members getting farm subsidies were identified in a study released Wednesday by the conservative Heritage Foundation, which relied in great part on data compiled by the liberal Environmental Working Group. The EWG has for more than a decade done a great public service by compiling and publishing the names of federal farm subsidy recipients and the amounts they received. Heritage’s Dr. Ron Utt, who was President Ronald Reagan’s privatization czar, dug into the raw data and other sources to confirm the recipients. Utt believes there are more — quite possibly many more — than the members identified so far with conflicts of interest on farm subsidies. Among those identified are:

» Sen. John Tester, D-Mont., received $230,311 in farm subsidies between 1995 and 2005. He has not recused himself from Senate budget votes.

» Family members of Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., received $230,237 in farm subsidies between 1995 and 2005.

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» Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., owns a company that received $45,400 in farm subsidies between 1995 and 2005.

» Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., received $161,084 in farm subsidies between 1995 and 2005.

» Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, received $225,041 in farm subsidies between 1995 and 2005.

» Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., received $40,403 between 1995 and 2005. His father received $319,662 over the same period and his brother $286,082.

» Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and his wife own 13 percent of a farm that received $126,555 in farm subsidies between 1995 and 2005. The remaining 88 percent of the farm is owned by 13 members of Lugar’s family.

Is it too much to ask that Congress stop exempting itself from the ethics laws and regulations it imposes on the rest of government, to say nothing of regular citizens and taxpayers? A credible first step would be to require all members to recuse themselves from voting on any appropriation bill funding a program from which they or their relatives receive benefits. Failure to do so should result in the violator being expelled from Congress.