While the Senate struggles to pass a bill that would require them to file their campaign finance reports electronically, one office in the House of Representatives is having serious disclosure problems of their own. The office of Rep. Bill Sali consistently files campaign finance disclosures and personal financial disclosures late, with dozens of amendments and corrections. The reason: they don’t know how to use computers. From the Politico:

One complaint? When the office files reports to Congress, they need to be amended. According to the Idaho Press-Tribune, the office has “filed 41 amendments to its required finance reports since 2005.”

And Sali’s office files late, apparently. One of two congressmen to do so. “Like 13 days late was the last one,” snitched a spy (and a newspaper, too). “And they chalked it up to computer problems.”

See here for the actual statement sent to the FCC: “I am unable to file the 2nd quarter 2008 FEC report, as FEC technical support is still attempting to fix the Sali for Congress data file. I first attempted to upload a file to the FEC site on June 6. I again tried on June 9, using the new FEC software update, without success. I then sent FEC technical support a copy of the Sali for Congress FEC file. FEC technical support is still attempting to fix the file so that it may be uploaded. I am in regular contact with FEC technical support and the FEC analyst, in an effort to resolve this matter.”

Sali’s problems with computers are so acute that the Idaho Press-Statesman ran an entire editorial on his epic disclosure fail.

U.S. Rep. Bill Sali needs to get his house in order. This has nothing to do with how he votes in the House of Representatives, but how the basic everyday operations run in his office.

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The real bottom line is that it is important to file reports on time and accurately — it’s not a joke.

Disclosure is not a joke. Rep. Sali should take public disclosure more seriously and perhaps figure out a way to train his staff on computer use.