In first test, Congress narrows scope of ethics reform

More information is available, but key changes aren't being practiced behind closed doors.

By Gail Russell Chaddock | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the October 5, 2007 edition

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Washington - The drive for more transparency on earmarks, or congressionally directed spending, is sputtering on Capitol Hill.

Two months after passing the most sweeping ethics-reform bill since the Watergate era, lawmakers are giving the new law its first field test as they move to complete authorization and spending bills for the new fiscal year.

Thanks to the new law, there is more information about member earmarks than ever before. For the first time, the public can link the name of a member to a specific project in that member's district – although the process is not as user-friendly as sponsors once suggested.

But key changes promised in debates in the House and Senate aren't yet the practice behind closed doors. Without public pressure, critics say they may never be.

"We have more disclosure about earmarks than we've ever had before, but among the more frustrating things we've seen is a simple word change that really delays disclosure until it's almost meaningless," says Bill Allison, a senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, which tracks earmarks.

One of the key venues for abuse, critics say, is "air-dropping" projects in conference. In other words, measures are added after a bill has passed both the House and Senate but before it goes back to both bodies for a final vote. That backroom tactic is what ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff called "the favor factory." It's where former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R) of California, now serving an eight-year sentence after pleading guilty to corruption charges, linked earmarks to bribes without scrutiny.

Water bill gets $2 billion in earmarks

Even before conferences on the 12 spending bills for fiscal year 2008, where most earmarks are typically added, critics note that the recently passed Water Resources Development Act added some $2 billion in earmarks in conference.

In a clarification of the intent of new reform bill, Senate majority leader Harry Reid told the Senate parliamentarian that the new law only applied to spending bills, not to authorization or tax bills. That means that members had no opportunity to challenge specific projects on the floor of the House or Senate.

"Under the OPEN Government Act that the president signed into law, everyone thought that the ability for senators to raise a point of order against earmarks added in conference applied to all bills – appropriations, authorization, tax bills," says Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, a budget watchdog group in Washington.

"Now, senators know that they can add projects with impunity to the authorization bill and no one can object. That's business as usual," he adds.

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