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Editorial: Some good news on reform, but much remains undone

Asheville-Citizen Times

September 19, 2006

When Labor Day has come and gone during an election year, any legislation that makes headway in Congress has to be viewed under the heading, “election year ploy.’’

Thus the news that the two pieces of reform legislation were moving forward in Congress was greeted with a healthy dose of skepticism.

One of the moves, targeting earmark spending, is fully deserving of that skepticism. The other reform, which would allow public scrutiny of most federal spending, seems to hold promise.

An earmark is language inserted anonymously into a piece of legislation by a lawmaker that creates pork barrel spending for specific projects. No lofty speeches, no debates and best of all (for lawmakers) no accountability. The money just magically appears for whatever project suits the whims of elected officials.

The amount of money in play is enormous. The taxpayer watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste says the number of earmarks this year alone reached almost 10,000, costing taxpayers $29 billion.

Any change in earmark procedure is welcome. However, the rules changed in the House last week are at best a start and at worst … an election year ploy.

Even these temporary rules are riddled with loopholes that exempt many if not most earmarks. For example, tax breaks for a single person or business would fall under the new rules. A tax break for two people or businesses wouldn’t.

The new rules require lawmakers to spell out the projects they’re attaching to legislation. That’s well and good. Problem is, New York Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter was probably correct in noting the rules “will do little more than to get Republicans through the November elections.’’

After all, the new rules only apply until the end of the year.

Beyond this thin tissue of temporary reform, no meaningful ethics or lobbying reform appears to be in the offing. That’s astounding given the roll call of corruption we’ve seen in official Washington of late: Rep. “Duke’’ Cunningham, Jack Abramoff, Bob Ney, Tom DeLay, William Jefferson. That new rules with teeth haven’t been passed is amazing. Among the pieces of legislation greeted with much fanfare and essentially left to die were numerous rules reforming Congressional travel, curbing the “revolving door’’ practice of government officials leaving to work for lobbying firms and requiring more openness from lobbyists.

Laura MacCleery of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch told The Associated Press, “It is tragic that Congress is failing to address in any meaningful way the corruption sweeping Capitol Hill in recent years.’’

There was one ray of good news on the reform front last week. A bill sent to President Bush calls for an online search engine, akin to Google, which would allow citizens to track where their money is going. The search engine should be available by 2008 and could have a real impact as a government watchdog.

The story of how this came to be is encouraging.

The legislation, crafted by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, and Sen. Barak Obama, D-Ill., had bipartisan backing. However, it was derailed using a “secret hold,’’ where a senator anonymously blocked the legislation.

A coalition on the Web that included elements from across the political spectrum embarked on a campaign calling for senators to confirm or deny they were behind the hold, and eventually enough pressure was exerted to break the logjam.

We imagine those same forces will play a hand in exerting scrutiny over spending when the new search engine comes online. The more the merrier, we say.

After all, it’s our money we’re talking about, and we have a right to know how (and who) is spending it. In the end, such scrutiny may prove to be just as valuable as the ethics reforms that are so sorely missing from this Congress’ agenda.