Central Sanity has a nice example of Republican Sen. Jim DeMint (a man I've started to really like, even though he's way too conservative for me on most things) again holding Democrats' feet to the fire on ethics and budgetary matters.
What makes it a win for the rest of us and not just partisan point-scoring is that it worked.
Under pressure from GOP conservatives, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee announced new rules Tuesday to overhaul the way lawmakers send taxpayer dollars to their districts and states.
The move by Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., came as conservatives including Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., increased the pressure to change the much-criticized, often secretive way in which "earmarks" are inserted into appropriations legislation.
The rules would require all earmarks - the footnotes in bills that lawmakers use to deliver federal bacon to their states - be clearly identified in documents accompanying appropriations bills. The requesting senator, the recipient of the earmark and its purpose would have to be made public and posted on the Internet.
Senators would also be required to certify that neither they nor their spouses would benefit financially from any earmark.
Shame on the Dems for having to be prodded into it. Good that, having been prodded, they did the right thing.
ethics, politics, midtopia
1 comment:
So, what you're saying is that it was Republicans who finally got the earmarks public and actually changed the rules; not Democrats. Even though they ran on that in November and promised to do it.
BTW, the Republicans tried to get this done last year when they were still in the Majority and Dems would not go along with it.
So, now---even though the Dems have fought changing the rules on earmarks all the way, THEY will take credit for it. But at least we all know who REALLY got it changed finally.
JP5
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