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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Let Us See Congress Votes |
Current rating: 0 |
by Ralph Nader
(No verified email address) |
27 Nov 2001
Modified: 11:20:11 AM |
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The News-Gazette was bragging on US Rep. Tim Johnson's constituent service in Monday's paper. Strange that a rather obvious bit of service like keeping your constituents apprised of your voting record might be the first thing you do as a congressperson. On the other hand, neither Johnson nor the N-G has mentioned his vote on the government giveaways to big corporations, disguised as a economic stimulus bill, that gives away most of the aid to fat cat corporate contributor's in the wake of Sept. 11. That might be something you do NOT want the voting public to know. ML |
Members of Congress are continuing to play hide-and-seek with their legislative records. Only two congressmen - Republican Reps. Christopher Shays of Connecticut and Frank Wolf of Virginia - have placed their voting records on the Internet in a searchable format easily accessible to citizens. Not a single U.S. senator has been willing to use the Internet in a manner that would give voters an open, accurate and quick way to track their votes.
Thanks to taxpayers, computers equipped with Internet access are available in the offices of every one of the 535 members of the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. Posting voting records on their websites in a searchable citizen-friendly format would be a simple task.
So, why the reluctance to implement something that would make it easy for voters to understand how their elected representatives were performing their official duties?
Flowery speeches about the public's right to know notwithstanding, most members of Congress are guided by the age-old political rule: "What the voters don't know can't hurt you on Election Day." If voters could pull up easy-to-read details on their computer screens about every vote a senator or a representative makes during a term, there might be some surprised voters and a lot of red-faced members of Congress in need of quick explanations.
This past summer, two members of my staff - Noel Dingboom and Mark Wittink - worked with congressional interns in a survey of Senate and House offices to determine attitudes about the posting of voting records in a searchable format on the Internet. The answers were disappointing, with most members falling back on claims that votes were available on other Internet sites including those managed by various private organizations.
Some of the explanations for the failure of members to post their own records seemed to translate into something akin to "the constituents are too dumb to understand" an unvarnished straightforward rendition of a congressional voting record.
Reliance on private groups is tricky, at best. Most compile voting records in a manner to support their own policy positions. Others are selective about the issues and votes they list. And members of Congress have a long history of attempting to discredit as biased any group that publishes a voting record that makes their record look bad.
It is true, as many offices cited, that the Library of Congress, through a service dubbed "Thomas," carries votes in conjunction with its Internet tracking of activity on the floor of the House and Senate. The process of extracting votes of individual members from "Thomas" is too cumbersome and time-consuming to be practical for most citizens. The same is true for the Congressional Record printed by the Government Printing Office.
Unfortunately, sometimes Congress is able to rig the parliamentary procedures so that some items can slip through without a vote. One of these was a $4,900 raise for all members that was allowed to go into effect earlier this month without a vote.
It is little wonder that frequently fewer than 40 percent of the eligible voters turn out in biennial elections to select their senators and representatives. And millions of those who do arrive at the polls have only the most surface information about what their sitting senator or representative has been doing in Washington. Incumbents like to keep it that way.
Information is the oxygen of democracy. It is also the basic ingredient that builds and maintains confidence and accountability in government. At a minimum, citizens have a right to know in detail the positions their representatives take on legislation. Congress should adopt a rule that would require that all members list their voting records on the Internet in an easily accessed, searchable format by member name, bill subject and title.
This would be a giant step forward in efforts to ensure an informed electorate - and a more accountable Congress. Citizens should contact their senators and representatives and ask why this isn't being done. They can be reached through the Capitol switchboard - 202-224-3121 for senators; 202-225-3121 for representatives.
Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate and former presidential candidate based in Washington. This article was distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
Copyright 2001, Hartford Courant
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See also:
http://www.ctnow.com/
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A Good Example Of Why Ralph Is Right |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
27 Nov 2001
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Did you read about how US Rep. Tim Johnson voted on the important issue of ecomomic stimulus in the News-Gazette? No, you sure didn't, because they are TJ's lapdog. Looks like you wouldn't know, except for IMC.
Check out this earlier story, proving that Johnson is simply another corporate sleazebag wrapping himself in the flag for his own profit. That's not patriotism. It's sophistry. |
See also:
http://urbana.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=2941
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