Yesterday during the debate on the Senate ethics legislation Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Co.), along with cosponsor Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), introduced an amendment to require that each Senate committee and subcommittee post to their website “a video recording, audio recording, or transcript of any meeting not later than 14 business days after the meeting occurs.” Salazar’s amendment (SA 15), which modifies Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nevada) substitute amendment SA 3, was agreed to by a voice vote yesterday.
Continue readingObama’s Real Estate Deal and Local Entanglements
In writing about Sen. Barack Obama's real estate dealings with Antoin "Tony" Rezko--a big fundraiser in Illinois politics who's currently under indictmnet for activities including allegedly "shaking down firms" with business before the state--Chicago Sun Times reporter Lynn Sweet draws an important distinction. Local Chicago reporters and columnists--including those from the Tribune (which broke the story), the Sun-Times, local radio and the local Associated Press crew--learn that Obama is involved with Rezko, and start asking hard questions. While other papers pick up the story, they're in essence repeating what the local reporters have dug out.
Continue readingHouse, Senate Agree on Federal Spending Database; Bill Must Still Pass House
The House and Senate have agreed on a version of S. 2590, the Coburn-Obama database bill. The press release indicates that the publicly available database that the legislation will create will include both federal contracts and grants (an earlier House bill, Blunt-Davis, would have disclosed grants but not contracts). The bill still has to pass the House, but it looks like it's moving forward. Here's the release:
WASHINGTON---House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.), U.S. Senators Tom Coburn (Okla.), Barack Obama (Ill.), and Tom Carper (Del.), and Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis (Va.) today announced that they have reached agreement on legislation to increase accountability and transparency by establishing a public database to track federal grants and contracts. Continue reading
How Much To Build a Grants and Contracts Database?
Sunlight's been an active analyst on what turns out to be Sen. Ted Stevens' hold on the Coburn-Obama bill and how the lack of transparency of this peculiar Senate process is a huge disservice to our democracy, even though it has long been a hallmark of how the Senate does its business. It's time has come and now, thanks to citizens' response to the blogosphere's rallying calls to find out who was at the bottom of the hold, gone. (OK. That's too optimistic, but I bet that the next time a high profile piece of legislation is moving, a Senator will think twice about putting a secret "hold" on it.)
Continue readingImam at a Pork Roast:
The Washington Post writes a profile of anti-pork Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-OK) crusade to cut earmarks out of the emergency spending supplemental before the Senate. Only one of his amendments were ultimately successful and the lack of majority support from either party led him to withdraw many of his amendments challenging the earmarks. One of his challenges was to a $500 million earmark to aid rebuilding of a Northrop Grumman shipbuilding yard in Mississippi. The Wall Street Journal reports that the vote was 51-47 with both parties evenly dividing. One of the few successul amendments aimed at controlling spending was introduced by Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and co-sponsord by Coburn. The amendment restricts the number of no-bid contracts for rebuilding in the Gulf Coast and was agreed to with a 98-0 vote.
Continue readingIn Blog Daylight:
- One day after Jack Abramoff was sentenced to 70 months in prison House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) “offered a privileged resolution today calling for an immediate investigation into Abramoff's ties to members of Congress and staffers,” according to The Fix’s Chris Cillizza. The resolution was defeated 216-193 with the vote coming largely along party lines. Six Republicans joined the Democrats in voting for the resolution, two more voted “present”, while the five Democrats on the ethics committee, “presumably to preserve them from accusations of bias as they continue to urge an investigation into ethics breaches of House members linked to Abramoff,” also voted “present.”
- Mark Tapscott at Tapscott’s Copy Desk was mighty excited about an amendment to the Senate lobbying reform legislation that was proposed by Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Barack Obama (D-IL) yesterday:
The Coburn/OBama amendment directs the U.S. Office of Management and Budget to establish a publicly available database of the more than $300 billion the federal government spends each year via contracts and grants to more than 30,000 groups, businesses and organizations.
Making public data about the recipients of that $300 billion chunk of the federal budget and how they spend the tax dollars would remove the biggest roadblock to public accountability that makes Pork Barrel spending possible - You can't track pork barrel if you don't who gets the money.
But then Trent Lott (R-MS) came along and killed the amendment:
Continue readingThe Senate's Rule 22 refers to the germaneness - i.e. relevance - of a proposed amendment. Translated from the Washington legislatese in which senators and congressmen so often hide, this means Lott thinks making sure the public can see who is getting more than $300 billion of their tax dollars has nothing to do with congressional ethics.
Put another way, Lott just told taxpayers to butt out.
Senate Passes Lobbying Reform; Bill Moves to House:
By a vote of 90-8 the Senate approved a lobbying reform bill that is being both praised and criticized from both sides of the aisle, according to the Washington Post. Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) declares, “This legislation contains very serious reform.” One of the eight ‘nay’ voters, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), begged to differ, “It's extremely weak.” The most notable ‘nay’ votes came from the strongest proponents of reform: Senators Barack Obama (D-IL), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Russ Feingold (D-WI), and McCain. The other four votes came from James Inhofe (R-OK), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Kerry (D-MA), and Jim DeMint (R-SC). Roll Call reported that Obama, the Democratic point man on reform was very unhappy, “Given that Mr. Abramoff just got five years in the pokey, the notion that this is the best we can do doesn’t make any sense.” Sen. Chris Dodd, a chief sponsor of the bill, sounded triumphant proclaiming in the New York Times, “There's a sign that's now up in front of the Capitol. It says ‘Not for Sale.’” Later, he admitted that the bill does not include “true meaningful campaign finance reform that breaks the link between the legislative favor seekers and the free flow of special interest private money.” Coburn made the best analogy, “You can wash the outside of the cup all you want. If the inside is still unclean, you're going to have the same problems.”
Lobbying Reform Stalled:
The House and Senate are both stalled on lobbying and ethics reform, according to the Associated Press, after leaders in both houses promised bold reform after ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty in January. The Senate bill was derailed last week after it became caught up in the Dubai ports controversy, while the House has yet to come together around a specific set of reforms. Some fear that the issue could be lost in a crowded calendar this spring. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), Democratic point man on ethics reform, stated that, “I'm not going to let it slide off the table. … I’m a little bit concerned on the House side. There seems to be a lot of backpedaling.” Members now hope to have a bill passed by the Easter recess, further delaying the possibility of swift action in the wake of mounting ethics worries on Capitol Hill.
Continue readingCorporate Travel Reform Eyed in Senate:
A group of Senators are aiming to make lawmakers pay their fair share when they fly in corporate jets, according to the New York Times. Current rules stipulate that lawmakers must reimburse the cost for private jet travel at the commercial first class rate, which is significantly lower than the actual rate for private jet travel. Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI), Rick Santorum (R-PA), and Barack Obama (D-IL) are proposing legislation that would force lawmakers to pay the actual rater for the private jet travel. Obama sees private jet travel “as a way to circumvent the limits on so-called soft money campaign contributions.”
Continue readingMembers Push for Independent Ethics Commission:
Contending that the House and Senate ethics committees have failed to do their jobs, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) “outlined a plan for an ethics enforcement commission that would receive complaints from the public as well as from legislators, have subpoena and deposition powers, and could present cases to the House and Senate ethics committees or the Justice Department.” The Associated Press reports on Obama’s efforts in the Senate to create an outside enforcement body and the efforts of Marty Meehan (D-MA) and Chris Shays (R-CT) to do the same in the House. Meehan and Shays “introduced a bill to create an office of public integrity - a professional, independent, nonpartisan office to investigate ethics complaints.”
Continue reading
59063
