But according to Mother Jones, “hope for reform comes from a piece of legislation introduced by Senators Tom Coburn and Barack Obama in April and which was green-lighted by the Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs in late July.”
The reason groups are holding out hope in this bill is it is being supported by both sides of the aisle. This seems to have become as rare as hair in Washington. Before this bill has even been signed into law, there has been some controversy over a mystery person putting a hold on it. Mother Jones adds:
- Co-sponsored by 29 senators on both sides of the aisle, the bill has garnered widespread support from more than 100 organizations, ranging from Greenpeace to Jim Dobson’s Focus on the Family. However, just as the legislation was gaining momentum, it was blocked from floor consideration by an anonymous hold.
Mystery solved: On CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, it was reported that Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is the one blocking the bill. When asked about this controversial move, his office told reporters that it “was no secret.”
If this was true, then Sen. Stevens was either “not feeling” this bill, or he covered his opinion with his hands. Often when senators are held up as being bipartisan, they are not rewarded for it. This has been cited as the cause for the downfall of Senator Lieberman's (the Pres. Bush kiss poster) not winning his last bid in the primaries for office. Lieberman, to his detriment, supported Bush and the war in Iraq. But when he did not win, he fired back. He has fired his entire staff and now plans to run as an independent in an attempt to win/retain his senate seat, which could be lost this November. Perhaps he should call every Christian voter one by one.
Article comments
1 - RedTard
Congratulations, the Democrats should be proud of coming up with this excellent piece of legislation. A central repository for federal (and hopefully city and state) governments to list their expenditures so we know where our tax money is going.
If the government is going to use fancy electronic surveillance on it's citizens, perhaps it's citizens should return the favor.
2 - Nancy
Amen to that. This is a piece of legislation that should and must pass. I'm not surprised Stevens, that perennial sink of self interest, is the one holding it up. "Secretly". How nice.
3 - Heloise
The Democrats did come up with this. Bingo. They are thinking. We need to be thanking them with our emails to their offices to let them know we like it.
It is not enough for it to just pass the Senate and the House Americans have to let the legislators know what they do and do not like. It is a relationship that has gone sour because it is no longer two-way.
Heloise
4 - Heloise
I like the way you think--we should be watching them. Isn't that a unique concept. People watching their own damn money. That is why I wrote the piece about the billions going to Africa by philanthropers. Should we not question it?
Heloise
5 - Heloise
Addendum to article: I forgot to mention: You will be able to GOOGLE them to see what they are doing. That's right Online surveillance of your government. Not really, but you can Google anything related to spending that you have read about, hear about, see, observe, think, or just want to know. I did not list them because obviously the list would be exhaustive. Simple idea, massive impact.
Heloise
6 - Heloise
"The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, which Coburn has called “Google for government spending,” calls for a single, publicly accessible Web site that tracks the approximately $1 trillion in federal contracts, grants, and loans " among other allocations " awarded each year, providing detailed information on the ward’s recipient, amount, and intended purpose. “
From Mother Jones article
Heloise