House to post lawmaker expenses online

[babylonsister]

House to post lawmaker expenses online
By Jordy Yager
Posted: 06/03/09 02:34 PM


The House is planning to post lawmakers' expenditures online by the end of August in an effort to improve transparency.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) issued a letter Wednesday asking Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Dan Beard to post annual expenditures online so they are available to the public.

“The House is making every effort to operate in a transparent manner and online publication of these reports will expand accountability to taxpayers and the press,” Pelosi said in her letter.

Members receive between $1.3 million and $4.5 million for their annual office allowances, which they can spend on everything from BlackBerrys to plane tickets back to their district. For more than a century the House’s accounting of these purchases has been limited to thick, bound paper volumes made available through the House Legislative Resource Center in the Capitol or the Government Printing Office.

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"We got reports from people saying that the publication of this information caused the offices to reevaluate how they did salaries and to make sure that they were a little bit more easily justifiable," said Jock Friedly, founder of Legistorm, who added that perhaps members would be less inclined to make extraneous purchases, like they did with their travel habits, if they knew the public was watching.

“There is a night and day difference between the kinds of trips that were taken before and now,” he said. “Some of that is the House and Senate tightened up what kinds of travel you can take, but also the added scrutiny caused by the availability of these records online has caused members of Congress to think twice about whether they really want to take a trip that might not look all that good to constituents.”

more...

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/house-to-post-lawmaker-expenses-online-2009-06-03.html

[ellisonz]

1. Good.