Cleaning up Congress

LEIGH POMEROY

Money in so ingrained into the operations of Congress that simply excising the cancer is not enough. Surgery, radiation and chemotherapy together may have a chance, but only if Republican and Democrat health care providers work together on the combined treatment.

Fortunately, this may be happening, as recently highlighted on the PBS show "NOW" with David Brancaccio. From the "NOW" website:

Ridding the budget process of abusive earmarks has a number of backers in Congress -- among the most vociferous are Republicans Tom Coburn, the freshman senator from Oklahoma and John McCain, and Democrats Russ Feingold and Diane Feinstein. McCain, Feingold and Coburn are among the members sponsoring the "Pork-Barrel Reduction Act" which "would allow senators to raise points of order against special projects, or earmarks, that are attached to spending bills without having been approved by the relevant committee. Under the procedure, which also applies to policy changes embedded in spending bills, 60 votes would be needed to override the point of order and keep the provision in the bill."

The Act would mandate a greater degree of transparency. Each earmark would have to be described in detail and its sponsor would have to be identified. In addition, the House-Senate compromise bills and appropriations committee conference reports would have to be made available to senators at least two days before they are expected to vote on them. The Act also requires lobbyists disclosure when they have made efforts to secure earmark provisions.

Some critics say that the Pork-Barrel Reduction Act still doesn't go far enough because it is limited to appropriations bills and does not address earmarking in authorization bills. Senators Trent Lott and Diane Feinstein have authored a reform bill which contains many of McCain's bill provisions but does not discriminate between appropriations and authorizations. Critics of that bill contend that it is not as strong on cutting down earmarks and pork.

The "NOW" show pointed out that earmarks have grown from 1,300 in 1994, when the Republicans took over Congress, to nearly 14,000 costing $27.3 billion in 2005, according to the Citizens Against Government Waste. It also mentioned that Ronald Reagan vetoed the 1987 highway bill because its 152 earmarks were too many. By 2005, those earmarks had grown to 6,371 costing $295 billion. (See former Rep. Dick Armey's op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal November 29, 2005,entitled "It's Our Party...".)

With agreement among politicians as diverse as Dick Armey and Russ Feingold, Trent Lott and Diane Feinstein, one hopes that Congress would tell big money to get lost and finally do the work of the people.

For more info and other points of view, see:
Porkbusters: blogging the waste out of government
"Money-go-round" from World magazine
"The Great American Pork Barrel" from Harper's magazine