The House Democrats released their proposed set of ethics, lobbying, and earmarking reforms that will be voted on early tomorrow. Over at Daily Kos new Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter put out a list of what these reforms entail, which I have cribbed below the fold. This is pretty much the set of changes that the Democrats supported during the ethics debate last year, although some stronger measures (think the earmark proposal sponsored by Rep. Chris Van Hollen and Rep. Rahm Emanuel) have been left by the wayside. Take a look and let's talk about what's missing and where the loopholes are.
Continue readingState-level Ethics and Lobbying Reform Ahead of Congress
In a little more than 24 hours the Democrats will take the reigns of power in Congress and begin their rule by enacting lobbying and ethics reform measures that are long overdue. Earmark reform, greater lobbying disclosure, bans on certain gifts and travel. It all sounds pretty good but according to the New York Times it’s nothing compared to what the states have been doing.
Continue readingPreventing Last-Minute Lawmaking
Over the weekend the Washington Post reported further on the contents of the omnibus package bill, the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006. The bill, one of the last items passed of the 109th Congress, is representative of much that is wrong with the legislative process and in such serves as a perfect coda for a Congress that will be remembered as one of the worst.
The Post article tackles some last minute lawmaking by both Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). The two party leaders inserted rejected and opposed initiatives regarding public land sales and Medicare into the bill at the last second despite previously voiced opposition.
Continue readingMore on Tax Earmarks and Reform Loopholes
Yesterday the Washington Post reported on 520 tax earmarks that were inserted into a bill that passed the Congress on the last day they were in session. I posited that the inclusion of these tax earmarks without a list of members who requested them was in violation of the earmark reform rule that passed the House back in September. It appears that this was not in violation because many of the tax earmarks were proposed as separate bills earlier in the session and were wrapped up into the final bill. Thanks to Bill Allison I was able to track these bills down.
Continue readingTax Break Earmarks Continue
What, you thought that Congress had really frozen out all of its earmarks? The Washington Post reports today that one of the final acts of the 109th Congress was to pass a tax bill -- the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 -- that included 520 import tariff breaks for select companies. The Post notes, “Corporate lobbyists often craft such suspensions to apply to just one product imported by just one company. Many of those companies and their executives have given millions of dollars to political campaigns.” Of course none of these companies are identified nor do we know who inserted these tax earmarks into the tax bill. All that we have is a very long (and sometimes silly) list that details precisely which items are to be free of import tariffs.
Continue readingOnline Committee Transparency: Senate Edition
Since determining the online transparency of the committees in the House I figured it would be worthwhile to compile a similar list for the Senate. The Senate committees turned out to be very similar to their counterparts on the House side. Around one-third of the Senate committees provided no access to printed transcripts or audio/video for each committee meeting and only one committee was fully transparent in its access to committee meetings.
Senate Rules (XXVI) require that committee meetings be open to the public and that committees should keep a verbatim account of these meetings:
Continue readingOnline Committee Transparency: House Edition
Following up on the previous post on committee transparency I decided to take a look at the House committee websites to find out how readily available recordings and/or transcripts of committee meetings actually are. Congressional committees are supposed to be transparent and are supposed to make available to the public the full contents of open committee hearings and mark-ups. This, of course, isn’t always the case as we shall see.
Continue readingThe Good Earmark
Here's a transparency debate for everyone to have: The Iraq Study Group was created by an earmark inserted into a spending bill by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.). Why did he choose the secretive earmarking process to create this important panel?
“The fact is that there were members of Congress who would have opposed it,” Mr. Wolf said. “Should I have allowed that to stop me from doing what was in the best interest of the country?”
Discuss.
Continue readingThe End of Work as We Know It
Today the Washington Post reports that incoming Majority Leader Steny Hoyer plans on making the 110th Congress, y’know, actually work. The 109th Congress, if it finishes up business this week, will have spent the fewest days in session -- the House of Representatives only -- of any other Congress in at least the past 60 years. Now some congressmen are complaining that they might have to -- gasp -- work a five day week.
Congressman Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) apparently is an advocate of a 3-day work week. This is his comment in the Post article, “Keeping us up here eats away at families. Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families -- that's what this says.” This comment ought to be a nominee for the silliest and most embarrassing comment by a professional politician in the past year. (Another comment in this category should be “Dollar Bill” Jefferson’s declaration that he will one day offer an honest excuse for keeping $90,000 in cash in his freezer.)
Continue readingLost Years in the Committees
A group of bloggers at Daily Kos has started an impressive project involving citizen oversight in the coming Congress. The project, called Committee Transparency, aims to get at least one person to cover the goings-on of each and every committee in Congress and to make recommendations to make committees more transparent. This past weekend blogger greenreflex wrote one of the better blog posts on committee transparency explaining the Rules that govern public access to committee hearings and documents and the continuing lack of transparency in many committees despite public access rules.
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