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Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Secret Hold in Senate Blocks Transparency Effort
While the inner-workings of Congress can often be full of illogical, ironic, and bizarre happenings, the latest behind the scenes buzz on Capitol Hill (and in the blogosphere) certainly takes the cake. OMB Watch has been supporting S. 2590 (see here and here for some of the BudgetBlog's coverage), a bill to create a free, searchable, downloadable database of all federal grants and contracts information. This effort is supported by progressives and conservatives, and nearly everyone in between, and has the support of a varied and eclectic mix of Senators.
But it seems there is at least one Senator who is not so wild about disclosing to the public how, on what, and with whom the government spends its resources (think Duke Cunningham). And the best part of it is the Senator (or Senators) in question has put an anonymous hold on the legislation, preventing it from passing unanimously.
Because the bill is widely supported in the Senate (both Party Leaders are cosponsors), the bill's author, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), decided to attempt to fast track the bill through the Senate before the August recess and pre-election pressure push it off the Senate's plate altogether. Passing non-controversial legislation by "unanimous consent" is a common process that helps the Senate save time and still allows a single Senator to stop the bill by objecting.
But the irony of a "secret hold" being used to stop a bill promoting transparency and disclosure of government information was too much for many in Washington to take - and an effort launched by Porkbusters to expose the secret Senator has taken off through the blogosphere. While the approach used by Porkbusters - called a "desperate manhunt" by the Wall Street Journal (apparently they thought the female members of the Senate should not be included in such a tongue-in-cheek reference) - may not be the preferred method of congressional staffers, it certainly is raising the profile of the issue, and hopefully turning up the heat on the anonymous Senator.
Check out the Porkbusters Secret Holder page for updates as the public attempts to shed light on a secret effort to stymie government transparency.
Posted by Adam Hughes
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