A CNN exit poll showed that 42 percent of voters said corruption was an extremely important issue in their choices at the polls yesterday. It led terrorism, economy and Iraq as the national issues that drove voters choices.
Can there be any doubt that more transparency is in order? When we launched the Sunlight Foundation, we found huge support among the public for greater disclosure of the inner workings of what goes on in Congress
The most popular proposals included: requiring public disclosure of all money raised for a campaign by registered lobbyists and creating an independent ethics commission to review complaints, conduct investigations, and report on unethical conduct by lawmakers and their staffs. Just behind were proposals requiring public disclosure of any attempts to secure earmarks in budget bills that directly benefit lobbyists or campaign contributors, requiring lawmakers to file reports on legislation they have introduced that would benefit their campaign contributors, requiring public disclosure of all contacts with regulatory agencies pressing for action that benefits campaign contributors, requiring lawmakers to report publicly all of their contacts with lobbyists, and prohibiting former members of Congress and senior staff from working as lobbyists in Washington for five years after they leave Congress. Every single one of these proposals got support of 59 percent or higher!
Continue readingDefeated Earmark Disclosure Puts Sham House Rule to Shame
Robert Novak has more on the backdoor maneuvering and dust-up between Sen. Tom Coburn and Sen. Ted Stevens over the issue of disclosing earmarks that he'd alluded to earlier. Coburn sponsored a measure that would require the Pentagon to issue report cards on the utility and effectiveness of projects earmarked by members of Congress; Stevens didn't care for the scrutiny. The intra-party squabble doesn't interest me so much as the bottom line:
The earmark process enables the congressional-industrial complex to fund projects the military does not want. This year's bill appropriates money to buy 10 unrequested C-17 Globemaster cargo planes from Boeing. It also funds 60 F-22A Raptor stealth fighters, not supported by the Pentagon and opposed by McCain and Sen. John Warner, Senate Armed Services Committee chairman. F-22A appropriations are guaranteed for three years, reducing leverage with contractor Lockheed Martin. Continue reading
Ranking Influence in Washington
It's not just because of the name that I like the idea behind this new report (actually, the first installment of a new report) from Public Citizen's Congress Watch: it brings together several kinds of information on members of Congress in one place. It lets users look at contribution totals to incumbents from lobbyists, PACs, donors who don't live in the member's home state, small (under $200) donors, as well information on the junkets that members and their staff have taken. It also provides nice summary data by state (here's New York, for example).
Continue readingAttention to Earmarks Yields Results
Robert McElroy of the excellent and incredibly informative TheWeekinCongress.com dropped us a line saying,
the House bill report on military commissions this week now includes a section stating whether or not there are earmarks in the bill. That came as a result of the House Resolution last week.He adds that it's the attention that the blogosphere has directed to this issue that's made the difference. Continue reading
The Morning After
It's always useful to look at things the morning after they've passed. So what did we really get in the so-called "earmarks reform" rule change?
Here's the good part: All legislation of all types must have lists of all earmarks and the names of lawmakers who proposed them before their considered. That's terrifically comprehensive.
Continue readingEarmark Reform Passes
Well, it looked like the paltry earmark reform measure wouldn't pass earlier today, but pass it did. By a vote of 245-171 congressmen approved a measure that will shine some light onto some earmarks. As expected Republican appropriators voted against the measure along with the majority of Democrats who called the measure too little, too late. The Associated Press lede shows that the Congress has not exactly fulfilled their promises to enact sweeping ethics and lobbying legislation, "The House is taking a modest step to bring into the open special projects lawmakers slip into legislation, seemingly abandoning more ambitious plans to clean up lawmaker relations with lobbyists." Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has asked the chair and ranking member of the Senate Rules Committee to come up with a similar rule as the House earmark reform rule.
Continue readingEarmark Reform Faltering
Members of the House Appropriations Committee appear to be balking at the prospect of change in House rules that would attach the names of lawmakers to the earmarks they've inserted into spending bills. As the Times article notes, this rather modest change would apply only to the House (not the Senate), and would exempt defense earmarks (where the real money is) from scrutiny. I've noted before that there are ways around the disclosure provisions proposed in the rules change, which potentially could make it harder to identify who's getting earmarks, because lawmakers could use obscure descriptions--any company incorporated in Harrison, N.Y., in 1923--to avoid the rule's requirement that they take credit for their earmarks. Still, with all it's limitations, this measure would shine a little light on spending bills already drafted but not yet passed--even a modest disclosure measure is better than none.
Continue readingTransparency Bill Passes Both Houses
Last night the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act passed both Houses of Congress on voice votes. This is a great victory for transparency in government and for the beginning of the end to the "Closed Door" government. Contracts and grants will be listed in this online searchable database so that all Americans can keep track of the government's spending. I certainly hope that transparent government will help reduce the distrust in government that exists among such a large portion of America. As Sen. Tom Coburn's website reads: "Transparency is the foundation of all accountability." But this victory, one that is especially sweet for the online community, should not be claimed to be something that it is not.
Continue readingHouse to Debate, Vote on Earmark Transparency Tomorrow
The House will consider a new rule tomorrow that will make earmarking a much more transparent process. The rule (found here at the Rules Committee homepage) would require that all bills, coming from all Committees, must list each and every earmark including the member's name making the request. This will apply to all legislation and will also apply to all committee reports and conference committee reports. Tim Chapman notes that the vote will be close tomorrow and that appropriators "(of course) have problems with the legislation." Hopefully the online effort that helped make earmarking and transparency an issue that Congressional leadership must address (see: Coburn-Obama) will help push this one over the finish line.
Continue readingHouse Leaders Promise to Implement Earmark Reform
The House Republican Leadership--Speaker and Rep. J. Dennis Hastert, Majority Leader and Rep. John Boehner and Rules Committee Chairman and Rep. David Dreier --issued a joint statement promising to implement reforms in the earmark process, "independent of the ongoing lobbying and ethics reform discussions to ensure these new rules apply to all spending and tax measures that will go to the President’s desk this fall." (emphasis in original). The statement also tells us,
The House-passed lobbying and ethics reform bill includes a series of significant reforms meant to bring greater transparency and accountability to the congressional earmarking practice. Continue reading
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