Editorial: Hold off in the Senate
Senators should not be allowed to bottle up bills anonymously
The Tennessean
September 3, 2006
Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has been outted as the kidnapper of a U.S. Senate bill that would allow taxpayers to see how their money is being spent. Now the public has a fighting chance to convince him to set the legislation free.
The bill is the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act. Co-sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., the bill would require the Office of Management and Budget to create a user-friendly Web site listing details on every grant and contract handed out by the federal government. Information would have to be posted within 30 days of Congress' authorization of the spending.
The bill couldn't stop the government from spending one red cent. It would, however, give the public an unobstructed, expedited view of spending, which would force Congress and the executive branch to be more responsible.
Surely, taxpayers and lawmakers alike should be able to agree that public funding needs to be efficient. Many lawmakers obviously supported the bill: It had 29 co-sponsors.
But Stevens wasn't among them. Although the bill was scheduled to go to the full Senate before the August recess, he anonymously put a hold on the legislation, stalling it indefinitely. Last week, after a combined squeeze by bloggers and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Stevens 'fessed up.
Ironically, the Senate voted 84-13 in April to ban secret holds. That provision, however, was included in the Senate's ethics reform package, which is now hung up in conference committee.
Senate rules give individual senators incredible power to block legislation. That's just fine — but senators should be required to take those steps publicly so they can be asked to explain their positions and so they can be held accountable for them by voters. With Stevens unmasked, accountability can begin.
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