I just read this article: "Interns Chase Congressional Pork" on Cnn.com's Anderson Cooper 360° blog - about congressional earmarks and transparency of requests for earmarked funds. The article talks about the difficulty in getting members of Congress to own up to what they are requesting, and includes a link so that you can see if your representatives were willing to share their requests or not. (Mine (Arcuri, D-NY and McHugh, R-NY) have not responded.)The results so far?
- 45 have turned over their requests.
- 68 flat out refused.
- 6 told us they did not request any earmarks.
- But the majority, 316, never responded.
Has your representative responded? What did they request?
3 comments:
Beth:
Thanks for posting this. The whole earmark issure has bothered me for some time. I am not necessarily opposed to earmarks per se, but I believe it should be a matter of public record what earmarks are added and by whom. It is a matter of accountability.
Mine flat out refused. And it kinda ticks me off! Of course, I've never been a huge Jim Walsh fan anyway so if he HAD told I probably would have found something to be irked with him for anyway :-)
Exactly, Allan. I don't think they're terrible in and of themselves either. But accountability and openness - key.
And Karen, I'm not sure which is worse - having at least the courtesy to respond even if it is "no" or just not responding at all!
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