Reform in name only

[ck4829]

"Just as the Legislature apparently embraced reform two years ago, Congress appears to be doing so now. And just as the Legislature's reform turned out to be little more than window dressing, so is the one agreed to by the House last week.

Or as Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., put it, not so much window dressing as an outright sham.

This year, members of Congress have been under intense public criticism for a practice known as earmarking, which allows members to anonymously insert pork barrel spending into often unrelated bills. It is usually done in the dead of night, and fellow members are often as surprised as the public when it turns out that, in addition to passing much needed funds for, say, hurricane relief, they have also voted to build a bridge to nowhere.

It was Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who first made earmarking a high-profile issue, and it has been an embarrassment for Congress ever since. Last week, in an effort to show it has gotten the message, the House voted 245 to 171 to require its members to identify themselves whenever they sponsor earmark spending. Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., chairman of the House Rules Committee, proclaimed, "We are blowing away the fog of anonymity."

Not quite. There are still plenty of loopholes to allow lawmakers to continue their old ways. Worse, the earmarks measure reform is being used as a substitute for a tough ethics bill this year that would restrict contacts with lobbyists. Gone are the days when Speaker Dennis Hastert was promising sweeping reform in response to public outrage over the Jack Abramoff scandal. Back then, he was vowing to prohibit his colleagues from accepting privately funded travel -- a perk many of them refused to give up. And gone, too, are the days when Mr. Hastert was promising more disclosure about lobbyists' attempts to influence lawmakers."

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=518542&category=OPINION&newsdate=9/20/2006