Thursday, August 02, 2007

Lobbying/Ethics Bill Passes: Earmarks and the Unthinkable

This afternoon, the Senate passed the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007, by a vote of 83-14. Among the significant reforms included in the bill are the following earmarks disclosure requirements:

• all earmarks in bills, resolutions, conference reports and managers' statements must be identified and posted on the internet at least 48 hours before a vote
• Senators must certify that they and their immediate family will not financially benefit from any earmarks they've requested
• new earmarks in a conference report -- i.e., not approved by either House -- are now subject to a 60-vote point of order

As OMB Watch wrote in a release yesterday, the bill mandates "important earmark disclosure ... that, for the first time ever, will allow the public to view the sponsors of congressional earmarks on the Internet." In fact, the debate surrounding the bill has prompted members of Congress to go further on their own -- two dozen of them began posting their earmarks requests this spring, also a first and close to unthinkable as recently as a year ago.