WASHINGTON – Facing unprecedented public scrutiny and an election this fall, Congress is under the gun to tighten the rules on the time-honored lawmaker practice of slipping pet projects into legislation - and it has about 30 days left to get the job done.
All I have to say is it's about time something atleast came up for debate
AMEN, and pass the ballanced budget...In the Senate, new obstacles are surfacing to a bill that would create an easily searchable - and public - database of all government contracts, grants, and earmarks.
If passed, information now requiring months of research and Freedom of Information Act requests could be acquired with the click of a mouse.
Together, the reforms would mark a sea change in the way Congress does business, especially in the Senate, where project add-ons are seldom challenged before a vote - and where a senator's "secret hold" on a bill is enough to derail it quietly.
And that's the rub. When an anonymous senator last month slapped a secret hold on a popular bipartisan bill to publish earmarks, contracts, and grants, public-interest groups mobilized to "out" the source, who turned out to be Sen. Ted Stevens (R) of Alaska. Sen. Robert Byrd (D) of West Virginia confirms he also once put a hold on the bill, but withdrew it.All clear? Not quite. Early this week, at least two other secret holds surfaced on the bill. Groups rallying in Washington on Wednesday called on Senate majority leader Bill Frist to sweep aside the holds - a senatorial courtesy, not a rule - and move the bill to the floor.
"The time for secret holds and keeping taxpayers in the dark is long over. We appreciate Senator Frist committing to bring this bill to the Senate floor for the up-or-down vote it deserves, and we hope he will announce a specific date for the vote as soon as possible," said Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, which supports earmark reform.
Take a look at who is on the sponsor list, maybe it is bandwaggon jumping, but we can at least hold them accountable if we find pork laid out by them for their states.Public support for change should be credited to former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R) of California, whose vast defense earmark-for-bribe scam - some earning his co-conspirators profit margins in excess of 800 percent - stunned many colleagues and sent him to prison. It also raised the profile on the hidden process of securing funds for member projects and mobilized public-interest groups and bloggers to shine a bright light both on earmarking and moves to reform the process.
Even if negotiations fail to produce comprehensive lobby reform, House and Senate leaders say they will change the rules of both bodies to require disclosure of all member projects and their sponsors."One way or another, we will address this issue," said House majority leader John Boehner, as Congress resumed work Tuesday. "It's important to use taxpayers' resources wisely - and important [that] we move forward on reform."
Now I realize that they will probably make enough loop holes for a blue whale to swim through, but the positive of this is if it ever were to come to a vote we would see who really likes pork and who does not.. check out this link.."This now has a very good chance of passing," says John Hart, a spokesman for sponsoring Sen. Tom Coburn (R) of Oklahoma. Other lead sponsors include Sens. John McCain (R) of Arizona, Barack Obama (D) of Illinois, and Thomas Carper (D) of Delaware.
http://porkbusters.org/hall_of_shame.php
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