The Democrats took control of Congress in January promising a return to integrity, ethics and transparency. The Republicans had, in several ways, failed on all those matters.
One example: earmarks. Republicans had billed themselves as the party of fiscal restraint, but they had a zest for spending, particularly when it came to the hard-to-track appropriations for local projects known as earmarks. Under GOP control, nearly 13,500 earmarks made it into spending bills in 2005. Voters got disgusted and Republicans lost control of Congress.
The Democrats insisted things would be different on their watch. They said lawmakers would put a moratorium on earmarks for 2007 and build in new transparency for the process before earmarks returned. No more secret spending measures.
Take note: Members of Congress have made 32,000 requests for earmark spending in 2008 appropriations bills.
Transparency? House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) recently said his committee wouldn’t have time to review all the requests before it voted on appropriations bills. So the earmarks would be kept secret, to be revealed only when House and Senate conferees sat down late this summer to make their final decisions on spending bills. That would provide no chance to review the individual earmarks, no up or down vote on them.
Obey’s announcement gave the Republicans a big target to pound on — and they did. Republicans forced Obey last week to promise to include a list of earmarks and their sponsors in all future appropriations bills before any vote by the full House. The contretemps over earmarks suggests that Democrats haven’t learned much from the Republican fall in 2006 — or their own fall from power in 1994. Don’t take voters for granted.
Give credit to one local Democrat, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, who on Monday made public the 24 earmarks he has requested for 2008. That gives voters a chance to assess his priorities. (And just why should redevelopment of the Lincoln Park Zoo South Pond be a federal spending matter?)
So there’s one vote for transparency.
And that prompts an idea.
Last year, two senators anonymously blocked a vote on legislation to create a searchable online database of federal grants and contracts. They would have gotten away with it, but bloggers started a campaign. They demanded that every member of the Senate admit if they were responsible for the block. They outed Sen. Ted Stevens and Sen. Robert Byrd. The embarrassed senators removed the block and the database bill (sponsored by Sen. Barack Obama) went on to become law.
So bloggers, ask your House members around the country to release their earmark requests. Embarrass them into it.
