Just For Jillian

[Annie]

An Editorial:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...ep01,0,3544472.story?coll=chi-newsopinion-hed

Busted by the bloggers

Published September 1, 2006

To the right of the masthead at the Web site porkbusters.org is a quote attributed to former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott: "I'll just say this about the so-called porkbusters. I'm getting damn tired of hearing from them."

Sens. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) are probably damn tired of hearing from them too, but taxpayers ought to listen up--and applaud. The porkbusters led a pack of bloggers who outed the two senators for bottling up a bill meant to help the public track how its tax dollars are spent.

Sponsored by Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the measure would create a searchable online database of federal grants and contracts.

An unnamed senator (or senators, as it turned out) was blocking that bill from coming to the floor. Under an arcane Senate rule, any member who has concerns about a bill can block it--anonymously. Party leaders know the blocker's identity but don't have to tell anyone, even the bill's sponsor.

When the porkbusters learned about the so-called "secret hold," they issued a call for bloggers to contact their own senators and demand to know: Are you the anonymous blocker? Readers at TPMmuckraker.com and GOPprogress.com joined in, and within days they had denials from 97 senators.

That's when Stevens decided to `fess up.

The bloggers still weren't satisfied.

By Thursday, Byrd was the only senator who continued to duck the question. Noting that Byrd's "penchant for pork would probably win him the Pork Crown if he weren't saddled with minority status," TPMmuckraker pressed for an answer. By midafternoon, Byrd had admitted he placed a hold on the bill--and said he has now released it.

When they were caught, Stevens and Byrd offered lots of blather about why they were preventing taxpayers from finding out how their money is spent.

Byrd's office said he just wanted to slow things down so the bill could get a thorough and open debate. Stevens' staffers said he was concerned about the cost, and he wanted a cost-benefit analysis and assurances that the database wouldn't create more bureaucracy and blah blah blah. Stevens could have brought all this up while the bill was in committee, but he skipped those hearings.

A more likely motivation: Stevens was mad because Coburn had tried to block a $223 million appropriation for Alaska's infamous "bridge to nowhere" that Stevens inserted in last year's federal highway bill.

It's a good day for taxpayers and the bloggers who got to the truth. And a bad day for secrecy in the U.S. Senate.

 

[007]

I know you posted this for Jillie baby Kath, but what a great website, the porkbuster one. Instantly went into my favorites list.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Kathianne again.

(... I hate that.)

 

[Annie]

I know you posted this for Jillie baby Kath, but what a great website, the porkbuster one. Instantly went into my favorites list.


(... I hate that.)

I love Porkbusters! Thanks for the 'thought'!

 

[Annie]

Yeah, links:

http://instapundit.com/archives/032367.php

September 05, 2006

porkbustersnewsm.jpgPORKBUSTERS UPDATE: It's another secret Senate hold -- these guys just won't give up:

Another Democratic senator appears to have placed a “secret hold” on legislation that would pry open the murky world of federal contracting to public scrutiny.

That’s the word that Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn received Tuesday from the Republican cloakroom, the place that tracks who is blocking legislation using the parliamentary maneuver.

The news came soon after Coburn learned that Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, had finally lifted his hold on the measure that Coburn and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., introduced in April. The measure would create a searchable database of some $2.5 trillion in federal contracts, grants, loans, insurance and federal assistance each year.

Stevens and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-West. Va., both indisputable masters at bringing home the bacon, placed the holds during the August recess. Both lifted them after prominent bloggers began calling senate offices to “smoke out” the senator responsible for holding up the open government bill.

If a Democrat does have a hold then they may have misled the blogger community which ruled out every Democrat except for Byrd last week. Every Democrat is on the record publicly denying that they have a hold on S. 2590. http://porkbusters.org/secrethold.php

If it turns out that a new hold has been placed, that senator might be in hot water with his/her party. That’s because leaders from both parties are urging passage of the bill in a particularly tight election season.

Mark Tapscott thinks the porkers are trying to outlast us:

Looks to me like opponents of Coburn-Obama have decided to see how long the measure's supporters in the Blogosphere can keep up the campaign of unmasking anonymous holders. There are more than 75 senators who are not co-sponsors of the bill.

If even a dozen or 15 of them agree to place successive anonymous holds after each new holder is unmasked - assuming they are - they could easily exhaust the legislative calendar and perhaps also the Blogosphere, thus effectively blocking consideration of the bill.

And don't think there aren't at least that many senators from both parties who would be more than happy to play a role in such a scenario.

Bill Frist has promised to move the bill in September. Will he let these kinds of shenanigans cause him to dishonor his promise?

UPDATE: Frist responds: "My Democrat colleagues have not yet cleared this legislation ... but I'm confident that they will do so promptly or pay the consequences of continued obstruction. Now is the time to act on S. 2590. And we will act this September to pass this bill and bring the bright light of public scrutiny to the federal budget."

And an email from his staff reads: "Senator Frist will not dishonor his promise."

MORE: I'm told that Senator Stevens has re-activated his hold on the bill.

Apparently, we're back to having two holds on the bill. [Bumped to top because it's important.]
posted at 08:02 PM by Glenn Reynolds

 

[Annie]

It (S- 2590) passed the Senate:



http://frist.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=2590

Press Releases

FRIST COMMENDS SENATE PASSAGE OF THE FEDERAL FUNDING ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY ACT

Senator Bill Frist, M.D.
September 7th, 2006 - WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D., (R–Tenn.) made the following statement regarding the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006:

“Tonight in the Senate, fiscal responsibility won. A tremendous effort from the blogosphere and our constituents, and the patience and cooperation of colleagues, led us to take this healthy step forward when it comes to responsible Federal spending.

"The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 will create a single, easily searchable database capable of tracking approximately $1 trillion in federal grants, contracts, earmarks, and loans.

“I want to thank my colleagues and those in the blogosphere that were working so passionately to get this piece of legislation passed in a timely manner.”

 

[jillian]

It (S- 2590) passed the Senate:



http://frist.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=2590

Very cool...

There's no question that bloggers can do amazing things in terms of grass roots efforts. My big objection to blogs and bloggers is that not all are equal and discretion has to be used in terms of filtering the info.

Thanks for the thread... dunno how it got past me til now. :cof:

 

[Annie]

Very cool...

There's no question that bloggers can do amazing things in terms of grass roots efforts. My big objection to blogs and bloggers is that not all are equal and discretion has to be used in terms of filtering the info.

Thanks for the thread... dunno how it got past me til now. :cof:

The bolded part has been my contention from the beginning, I'm quite discerning.

Here's more:

http://instapundit.com/archives/032442.php

September 08, 2006

porkbustersnewsm.jpgPORKBUSTERS UPDATE: The House and Senate have reached an agreement on the earmark reduction bill. House Majority Leader John Boehner reports:

House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.), U.S. Senators Tom Coburn (Okla.), Barack Obama (Ill.), and Tom Carper (Del.), and Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis (Va.) today announced that they have reached agreement on legislation to increase accountability and transparency by establishing a public database to track federal grants and contracts. House Majority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) announced he plans to schedule the agreed-upon language for House floor consideration next week.

“This process has focused on enhancing the accountability and transparency in the federal budget process,” Blunt, Boehner, and Davis said. “The federal government awards approximately $300 billion in grants to roughly 30,000 different organizations. Each year, roughly one million contracts exceed the $25,000 reporting threshold. We need to be sure that money is spent wisely. Our legislation creates a transparent system for reviewing these expenditures so that Congress, the press, and the American public have the information they need to conduct proper oversight of the use of our tax dollars. The package we’ve agreed to move requires the Administration to establish searchable databases for both grants and contracts.”

“I’m pleased that the House leadership agreed with us that all federal spending should be accessible through this website. It doesn’t matter if it’s a grant, an earmark, or a contract, this legislation will allow the public to know how their tax dollars are being spent,” said Sen. Obama.

It's a small but important step. It's worth noting, though, that as important as structural changes like this are, we also need to change the culture. That's starting to happen, too, but we've got a long way to go. Transparency should help with that, though.

Here's more from Americans for Prosperity. I certainly hope that this part is true: "With this online spending database now headed for reality, I have a feeling that those grassroots taxpayers and bloggers will soon show that they’ve just been getting warmed up."
posted at 07:36 PM by Glenn Reynolds