The nice thing about having the Dems run congress is when they do something that stinks this bad, even the NYT gets on them.
Democrats in Senate Fail to Block Bill on Ethics
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 — After campaigning for months on a promise to tighten ethics rules, Senate Democratic leaders tried unsuccessfully Thursday to block a measure that would shine a light on the shadowy practice of earmarking federal money for lawmakers’ pet projects.
Last week the House Democrats passed an unexpectedly broad change to their chamber’s rules that would disclose the size, purpose and sponsor of any earmark.
But on Thursday, when Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, introduced the same thing in the Senate, Democratic leaders moved quickly to squash it, calling the House bill ill thought out.
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, said he was happy to see the House “moving things along very quickly.” But, Mr. Reid said, “frankly, I don’t think they spent the time on this that we have.”
The Democratic leaders’ effort to block the DeMint proposal was defeated by a vote of 51 to 46, surprising almost everyone in the Senate. The outcome reflected the keen desire of many lawmakers to appear to be on the side of openness and reform after an election that turned in part on Congressional corruption scandals.
The reputation of earmarks, which are pet projects individual lawmakers tuck into complicated bills behind the scenes, was tarnished because they figured in several of the scandals. But lawmakers cherished them as a tool of political power used to reward supporters and gain favor with constituents.
On Thursday night, Jim Manley, a spokesman for Mr. Reid, said, “We are continuing to negotiate with Republicans on how to deal with earmark reform.”
Mr. Reid started the week by introducing a bipartisan ethics and lobbying proposal negotiated with the Republican leader, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. It contained a comparatively weak measure on earmarks that would require disclosure of the individual lawmakers sponsoring only a small fraction of them.
The bill excluded all earmarks dispensed through the federal government, including military contracts and civil engineering projects, two of the largest pools of earmarks. It also excluded all earmarks written in the explanatory reports accompanying spending bills rather than in the bills themselves, another broad category.
Mr. Reid offered his own amendment that would ban gifts or trips from lobbyists and the discounted use of corporate jets, but he left the weak earmark provision intact.
Mr. DeMint’s amendment to the ethics bill would have eliminated the loopholes and would apparently apply to all earmarks, just as the new House rules do.
After the move to block it failed, Mr. Reid and Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat, argued vigorously against the measure, saying it could have unintended effects.
“Earmark disclosure will be a major change in the way the Senate works,” Mr. Reid said. “We should adopt the Reid-McConnell version rather than the House version in the DeMint amendment. If we need to revisit the issue later, we can do that.”
Mr. DeMint argued that if the original bill was not strengthened, “the public’s going to know from Day 1 that the idea of being open and transparent is just a scam.” |
