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Congress Passes Pork Spotting Bill, Finally
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ShareSeptember 15, 2006 12:43 PM
After a summer of internet conspiracy theories over a "secret hold" preventing its passage, the highly acclaimed pork spotting bill, which would make it easier to spot pet projects and wasteful spending by U.S. congressmen, passed Congress yesterday.
"This is the biggest step in a decade for budget transparency and moves the government into the electronic age," says Steve Ellis, Vice President of Programming for the non-partisan Taxpayers for Common Sense. "It gives the average taxpayer one-stop shopping to monitor electronically how our government spends our money."
U.S. Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Barack Obama (D-IL) hailed the Congress's passage of the "Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act," a bill that proposes a user-friendly search engine that would disclose the nearly $1 trillion spent annually in federal contracts, grants, loans and pork barrel spending.
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"Every American has the right to know how their government spends their money, and then to hold elected officials accountable for those decisions," Sen. Coburn said. "This bill is a small but significant step toward changing the culture in Washington."
But it wasn't always smooth sailing for this landmark pork tracing bill.
Right before summer recess the original senate bill ran into a procedural snag -- an uncommon secret hold -- that prevented it from making it to the senate floor after it was passed unanimously in the Homeland Security Committee.
After extensive grassroots investigating by bloggers, teams of internet watchdog groups and even senate staffers, the sources of the anonymous hold, Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) and later Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), were made public.
Senator Stevens' staff denied to ABC News that the hold placed on the bill was in fact secret, but many who study congressional procedure, like Ellen Miller of the Sunlight Foundation, disagree.
"I think Senator Stevens' response is an attempt to spin the situation. A secret hold means that the public at large did not know," according to Ellen Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, a non-profit group advocating more electronic transparency in government.
Sen. Coburn, the bill's lead sponsor, lauded the vigilance of the alarmed public and online community for supporting the bill. "The bloggers, commentators and citizens who tirelessly pushed for this transparency legislation deserve full credit for its enactment."
The bill now goes to the President for his signature, and many like Ellis hope that because November is near, the bill will be signed into law. "No one would try to get in the way of this bill this close to election," Ellis said.
September 15, 2006 | Permalink | User Comments (8)
Kudos to you Senators Coburn and Obama for your diligence.
Truly this is a step in the right direction for holding our government officials "Accountable" for taxpayer dollars. I hope others follow your lead. Many thanks....
Posted by: dreek | Sep 15, 2006 1:15:59 PM
Who think anything will come of this? What does this really do for me? How does this hold anyone more accountable for anything then they were before?
"It gives the average taxpayer one-stop shopping to monitor electronically how our government spends our money."
Right. Like the average taxpayer has any intention of electronically monitoring the government. We're too busy monitoring and raising our kids.
I thought monitoring the government WAS the governments job? They can't eliminate the pork, they're depending on the average citizen? They want to be treated like children? Good. Send them to their rooms. Without dinner.
Posted by: Steve | Sep 15, 2006 3:28:39 PM
"Internet conspiracy theories?"
Posted by: Andy Vance | Sep 15, 2006 3:52:55 PM
I agree that this is a step in the right direction. But, I will believe it when I can actually access the information. I believe that ABC should go the next step to publish the schedule for implementation of this bill. This is not rocket science. The information is already gathered by the OMB and others. It is easy to approve the bill and even easier block implementation.
Posted by: Boo Man | Sep 18, 2006 11:54:31 AM
A look at the slime that inhabit the offices of OUR Congress...throw the bums out ....we need TERM LIMITS
Posted by: marion mcmasters | Sep 18, 2006 12:21:16 PM
At last there may be stop sign put in front of people like Senators Stevens, and Byrd, who have made the taxpayers purse their own private bank account for years.
Why do you think Byrd has been elected all these years ... not because he's a good Senator ... but the biggest 'pork' Senator the nation has ever known.
Posted by: Trans_Doc | Sep 19, 2006 4:47:56 AM
This is a truly great bill. I hope that now it will turn into a great law (i.e. not made toothless by some "signing statement"). I don't support term limits at all; term limits are invoked when representatives retire, die, or are not reelected. This forces the Congress and the White House to be honest with our money. I don't trust the government to police itself with respect to this. If citizens knew what waste their tax money was spent on, they would be outraged.
Posted by: Andrew E | Sep 19, 2006 3:25:07 PM
A good bill??? There's nothing in it to stop the practice. We use to be blissfully ignorant of all this, now we'll be torured by knowing the truth and not be able to do anything about it.
Term limits, term limits. These guys don't retire until they have been there 50+ yrs (Byrd), and they seldom die in office (Thurmond) and being incumbents they have a what? an 80% chance of getting reelected because they have the money and the connections? Presidents have term limits don't they.
This is one small step for man and one giant leap for politicians. Now they can cover themselves by saying that everybody knows whats going on.
But I suppose we should be grateful for every tid-bit thrown our way... cuz one lil square of toilet paper is better than nuthin at all.
Posted by: AL | Sep 21, 2006 4:42:46 PM
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