There's more earmark money in Defense appropriations bills than anywhere else, and the members of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee have their hands on the spigots. Over at RealTime, Anu finds something surprising: While three members, Rep. John Murtha, Rep. Jim Moran and Rep. Pete Visclosky took in an average of more than $100,000 in political donations from employees and PACs of the companies to whom they directed earmarks in the first half of 2007, the remaining members averaged a paltry $12,800. Why the disparity? Will the contribution totals from earmark recipients to the campaigns of their benefactors increase when the Federal Election Commission receives the next round of disclosure reports? Are Murtha, Moran and Visclosky more beloved by their earmark recipients? Find out who gave to the politicians, who got the earmarks and what they were for. Anu relied on earmark data from EarmarkWatch.org (generously supplied by our partners, Taxpayers for Common Sense), campaign finance data from both the Center for Responsive Politics and the FEC.
Continue readingAnd the FEC May Still Get Better
Last week it seemed almost inevitable that Hans Von Spakovsky, a nominee to the Federal Election Commission and former Justice Department employee with a track record of minority voter suppression, would sail through the Senate after he was reported out of the Rules and Administration Committee in a block with the other three FEC nominees. Sen. Mitch McConnell wanted the group of four voted on as a package in the full Senate as well and Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid looked to be acquiescing to these demands.
The Unanimous Consent vote was expected to happen today but a group of Democrats, led by Sen. Russ Feingold and Sen. Barack Obama, has decided to throw a wrench into these plans. Feingold and Obama are not only demanding that Von Spakovsky receive a separate vote from the other FEC candidates -- much like Bradley Smith did back in 2000 -- but that he reach the 60 vote threshold that has become increasingly the norm in the Senate. Sources say that other Senators are joining this cause including Sen. John Kerry and Sen. Sherrod Brown. I wrote last week that we should "hope the Senate will try to restore some respect for the commission and find a way to block this nomination," and apparently some Senators are willing to do so. Good for them.
Continue readingGillibrand: Put IG Work Online
The House of Representatives voted on a bill to improve the way Inspectors General perform their work monitoring spending in executive branch agencies. Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand thought the bill might be improved by adding a provision on transparency. Sunlight helped her find an amendment—already part of a bill Senator McCaskill has introduced—that would require that each agency provide a link on its homepage to its IG’s homepage. The amendment also requires that IG reports are posted in a searchable, sortable, downloadable format and be available online no more than one day after the reports are made public. Another piece of the amendment provides that the IG’s website have a method by which the public can report waste, fraud or abuse in an agency.
This amendment shines light on the important work of Inspectors General and it has the potential to save taxpayer money by allowing the taxpayers themselves to report when they think an agency is engaged in wasteful or improper spending. By offering this common sense amendment, Rep. Gillibrand, who already posts her schedule, her personal financial disclosures, and her earmark requests online, can put another notch in her transparency belt. The amendment passed by voice vote, which means that her colleagues also recognized how important and non-controversial greater transparency is. Hopefully more Members of Congress will follow Ms. Gillibrand’s lead when it comes to making their own work more transparent. Ms. Gillibrand and a handful of other Members know that greater transparency builds trust with their constituents, fosters accountability, and simply improves the way our democratic institutions work.
Continue readingAnd the Earmark Winner for Ohio and Kentucky Is….
The Cincinnati Enquirer shines a light on the federal dollars hauled in by Greater Cincinnati's nine-member House and Senate delegation. When it comes to delivering the pork, the paper found that Sen. Mitch McConnell is the area's most powerful member. McConnell, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, hauled in $391 million in federal funding for local projects in budget bills being worked on in Congress, more than 1½ times the amount that the area's other eight lawmakers got -- combined.
In a dramatic contrast, House Minority Leader John Boehner is a teetotaller. He doesn't believe in earmarks and hasn't asked for any money for local projects in the 13 spending bills that make up the federal budget.
The Enquirer built their own search engine that allows readers to search what earmarks local members have gotten in spending bills that are pending in Washington. Update: It bears mentioning that the database shows just how lousy the new Senate disclosure requirements on earmarks is. There are no company names. Just a general description of what the money should be spent on. The Enquirer writes about Earmark Watch, a joint project of Taxpayers for Common Sense and the Sunlight Foundation.
Continue readingKudos to The Enquirer. Hopefully more papers will do the same and start following what their congressional delegation is doing with our money.
Washington Meets Facebook
Facebook is holding a seminar here in Washington, next Tuesday to teach politicians and other government types how to use the social web. We at the Sunlight Foundation say "Bravo!" The new Web's benefits to elected officials of every stripe are pretty obvious, allowing government officials to communicate directly with their constituents, bypassing both internal and news-based editorial control. What is equally apparent is how the Web encourages openness, accountability and transparency and how Facebook has become a place to be for presidential candidates.
The organizers promise a lively seminar about how social media can be an integral part of any campaign and constituent strategy. In an effort to accommodate schedules and keep the sessions smaller, Facebook has scheduled two sessions on October 9, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon.
Hat Tip Jeff Jarvis.
(Federal) Help Wanted
Via the invaluable blog devoted to developments in federal government ethics, the IEC Journal, I came across this Web course for federal workers on the issues raised by working with government contractors:
Increasingly, private sector contractor employees are being used to accomplish the business of Government. This trend shows no signs of slowing down. These contractor employees can work either off-site or even in the same location as you. This may sometimes cause certain ethical issues to arise which you'll need to think about.It is important for you to know about the ethics rules and principles that focus ...
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Congressional subpoena update
Via National Journal's CongressDaily:
SUBPOENAS WITHDRAWN. Subpoenas of a dozen House members were withdrawn late Tuesday by an attorney for a defense contractor accused of bribing former Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham, R-Calif., after a federal judge indicated he was prepared to quash them, the Associated Press reported. U.S. District Judge Larry Burns said he might consider enforcing the subpoenas if contractor Brent Wilkes' attorneys could demonstrate the lawmakers had specific information related to the charges and that their testimony would be critical to his defense. Wilkes was scheduled to go on trial today in San Diego on charges ...Continue reading
Getting Serious About Earmarks
Looks like our colleagues over at Taxpayers for Common Sense are getting fed up about earmarks. In the case of Rep. Don Young’s $10 million earmark to benefit a Florida political contributor, they have filed a complaint with the House Ethics Committee. TCS raises the question over how the earmark found its way onto the 2005 transportation bill after it had passed both houses of Congress.
Continue readingMore than 400 Researchers Investigate Earmarks Using EarmarkWatch.org
In the week since we launched EarmarkWatch.org, more than 400 citizen researchers have dug into earmarks, answering hundreds of questions, making dozens of comments, and shedding light on everything from what in the world is a naturally occurring retirement community (it's considered to be a low-cost approach to facilitating healthy aging) to finding a potential family connection in a New Jersey museum earmark (the museum is housed in a mansion that was once the residence of the sponsoring member's father). They've asked why Congress needs to earmark $1,000,000 to buy wool socks for the Marines and how exactly New York City's American Museum of Natural History is going to spend $1,000,000 on Advanced Research to Further National Security Goals. We had 25,000 page views last week (the aforementioned sock earmark was the most-looked-at), more than 100 posted comments or additional research (it looks like the $3,000,000 for a Flat-Rack for the Marine Corps was the most commented on, and no, I didn't know what one was either), and one last factoid that makes me feel there are lots of kindred souls out there: The bulk of our intrepid earmark researchers are doing most of their digging at night. So am I -- EarmarkWatch.org is exciting, educational, and endlessly entertaining.
Continue readingThe Power of Video
Rumors that Texas lawmakers are a different breed are legend, and pillars of progressive journalism like Ronnie Dugger and the late, great Molly Ivins made careers covering the shenanigans and sleaze that goes on in Austin. Even reports of multiple voting have circulated. But the power of video makes this story come alive like nothing else. And this 'report' will not be thrown out with yesterday's newspapers. (I received 5 copies of the video over the weekend and saw it posted several places.)
Hat tip: Doc Searls where I saw it first.
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