Transparency - The full, accurate, and timely disclosure of information.
Obscurity - The state of being indistinct or indefinite for lack of adequate illumination
Senator Tom Coburn(R-OK) exposes the ethics bill passed by the Senate for the sham that it really is. Many of the provisions that were in the original bill were stripped by the Democrats in secret session.
From Coburn’s website :
“This bill is a landmark betrayal, not a landmark accomplishment. Congress had a historic opportunity to expose secretive pork-barrel spending but instead created new ways to hide that spending. Anti-incumbent attitudes, which were already at an all-time high, will only grow when the public realizes this bill was a sham,” Dr. Coburn said.
“Earmarks have been at the heart of recent scandals that have sent members of Congress to prison and brought others under investigation. It is no coincidence that as the lobbying industry doubled in size since 2000 so did the amount of money Congress spent on earmarks. The problem in Washington is not the lobbyists. The problem is members of Congress who send earmarks to special interests, and even family members, in an effort to stay in office or feather their own nest,” Dr. Coburn said.
“I’m disappointed Senate leaders refused to implement, as a simple Senate rule, earmark reforms originally written by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) which passed the Senate 98-0. The effort to get the Senate to accept these reforms was about helping the majority party keep its own promises to the American people. Our concern that Senate leaders would gut these reforms in an unnecessary conference setting was well-founded,” Dr. Coburn said.
Key differences between the original Senate-passed Pelosi language and the current bill include the following:
- Prohibits Senators from trading earmarks for votes
INCLUDED IN SENATE-PASSED BILL: YES
INCLUDED IN NEW BILL: NO
- Prohibits Senators from promoting earmarks that would financially benefit themselves, their immediate family, their staff, a their staff’s immediately family
INCLUDED IN SENATE-PASSED BILL: YES
INCLUDED IN NEW BILL: NO
- Allows the Senate parliamentarian to determine compliance with the new earmark disclosure rule
INCLUDED IN SENATE-PASSED BILL: YES
INCLUDED IN NEW BILL: NO
- Prohibits consideration of bills, joint resolutions, and conference reports if earmarks are not disclosed
INCLUDED IN SENATE-PASSED BILL: YES
INCLUDED IN NEW BILL: NO
- Requires earmarks attached to a conference report to be publicly available on the Internet in a searchable format 48 hours before consideration
INCLUDED IN SENATE-PASSED BILL: YES
INCLUDED IN NEW BILL: NO
- Requires 67 votes to suspend the earmark disclosure rule
INCLUDED IN SENATE-PASSED BILL: YES
INCLUDED IN NEW BILL: NO
- Requires a full day’s notice prior to attempting to suspend the earmark disclosure rule
INCLUDED IN SENATE-PASSED BILL: YES
INCLUDED IN NEW BILL: NO
- Requires all earmark certifications from Senators to be posted on the Internet within 48 hours after an earmark is placed into legislation or its accompanying report
INCLUDED IN SENATE-PASSED BILL: YES
INCLUDED IN NEW BILL: NO
This is a Weekend OTB & Linkfest for August 4-5, 2007.
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