Bi-Partisan Senate Earmark Reform
The Senate voted Tuesday to shine more light on thousands of expensive pet projects buried in legislation every year after the new Democratic majority bowed to a successful push by Republicans to make new disclosure rules even tougher than originally planned.
The vote was 98-0 to require senators to reveal the water projects, hiking trails, defense contracts or tax breaks for specific industries they insert in legislation. That unanimity came five days after Democrat leaders, holding a slim majority, were thwarted by a GOP-led rebellion, joined by many Democrats, in advancing a more comprehensive “earmark” reform.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who last week led opposition to the Republican approach, lauded the final product, saying it “combined the best ideas from both sides of the aisle.”
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., the author of the amendment to the ethics bill, said the ability of the two sides to come together on the issue was “a good signal for the new Congress.”
It seems to me that this is steering the country in the right direction. I have read some criticism that these reforms merely expose the earmarks but do not actually stop them. In a ship of state as large as ours I am impressed by even small corrections. Now at least the blogoshere and other observers can participate in monitoring who benefits from public funds and expose abuses. Perhaps with enough bi-partisan cooperation like these we may gain enough momentum to make progress on other challenging issues.
