Time for the GOP to Get Serious About Transparency
By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
12/14/08 8:31 PM EST
Soren Dayton has an important post up at The Next Right entitled "Time to Strike With a Republican Transparency and Ethics Agenda." He encourages congressional GOPers to get serious now about presenting a credible package of genuinely significant reform proposals at the outset of the 111th Congress.
Dayton notes that:
"With Rod Blagojevich and Charlie Rangel in the news and under pressure from the media, now is the time for the House and Senate GOP caucuses to push a real transparency and ethics agenda. On January 6th, both Houses will meet and begin the work of passing rules. We need to have some specific proposals, and this is not something that I follow well. Furthermore, the GOP ought to shoot big here. Frankly, we aren't going to run Congress for a while, so let's max this out."
Among the first items on Soren's list is this excellent suggestion:
"Second, faster and more complete campaign finance proposals. All contributions down to $5, or even just all contributions, should be disclosed. Electronic contributions should be disclosed within 72 hours, and checks should be disclosed within 72 hours of deposit. These would be real-time disclosed on the FEC website. This would solve the problem that the Sunlight Foundation and others have tried to address with S. 223."
You can read the rest of Soren's post here.
I of course absolutely agree with him and offer these additional ideas:
First, apply the Freedom of Information Act to Congress. Most Americans resent that Congress passes laws it expects the rest of us to abide by but exempts itself. Ending the 42-year-old congressional FOIA exemption would be a major step in the right direction and one that would call the Democrats bluff on the transparency issue.
Second, require Members and their key personal and committee staff members (chiefs of staff, legislative directors, committee staff directors, legal counsels, possibly others) to maintain online daily calendars recording names and titles of all participants in meetings concerning any proposed legislation or expenditure of federal funds.
Third, abolish the absurd categorical values in the annual financial disclosures required of Members. Show us the money, the shares, the property, the consideration, Congressman. Require the same level of disclosure for key staff members included in the second suggestion.
As for, as Soren puts it, "shooting big" on these issues, I've argued for decades that transparency is not only essential to maintaining accountability in government, it is also true that the GOP has everything to gain politically by demanding transparency because it is essential to exposing the inevitable corruption and inefficiency of Big Government.
