Republicans Struggle with Transparency

Last updated on 2015.03.10

Republicans are struggling with the concept of transparency in Washington and in Pierre. Speaker John Boehner and the House GOP, for instance, have been having trouble keeping their promise to open up the legislative process:

For example, Boehner and his top leaders suggested they would move bills through committees and allow an open, transparent amendment process.

But at this point, not a single bill has been sent through a committee in regular order, and Republicans held the PATRIOT Act vote open beyond its 15-minute window Tuesday night. Open rules have morphed into "modified open rules." (see: House to pass Patriot Act extension) [Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan, "Growing Pains: GOP Stumbles," Politico.com, 2011.02.09].

House GOP starlet Kristi Noem is also struggling with openness. Read her bumbling vagueries as she takes pains to avoid mentioning her new K Street friends:

"I think there's certainly a desire for people to get us as much information as we want," South Dakota Rep. Kristi Noem, a freshman representative to the GOP leadership, told POLITICO. Noem said she's had "quite a few meetings with different groups providing us information," though she declined to go into detail [Darren Samuelsohn, "K Street Takes Lawmakers to School," Politico.com, 2011.02.10].

Congresswoman Noem is apparently so busy lining up her hair appointment before breakfast with multi-million-dollar lobbyists K&L Gates next Thursday at 8:30 (8:30?! How can anyone wait that long for breakfast?) that she hasn't gotten around to setting up her Aberdeen field office:

If Kristi Noem is interested in representing all South Dakotans, where are her district offices located? What are her office hours and who are her staffers?

As I recall, Stephanie Herseth Sandlin had people setting up her Aberdeen office the very first day after winning her first election.

Noem, what are the answers to these questions? We all deserve to know [Karen Goodall, letter to the editor, Aberdeen American News, 2011.02.09].

Check Noem's website: nope, still no Aberdeen office.

Meanwhile, back in Pierre, some of our legislators are keeping some secrets from the public in the form of placeholders bills. Consider HB 1208, which is on the House Education agenda for Monday. The bill consists of one sentence:

Section 1. The Legislature shall utilize this bill to identify and repeal certain unnecessary education mandates to enable the public school system to operate more economically.

This isn't legislation. This is a paper shell, waiting for the sponsors to figure out what they want to do and spring the details on us in committee Monday. There are other placeholders in the hopper to "affect health care" (ditto) and "affect medical services." When a placeholder bill like this heads to committee, how can folks affected mobilize to contact committee members or even drive to Pierre to testify? Suppose Senate Majority Leader Russell Olson (R-8/Wentworth) is planning to repeal physical education mandates so schools no longer have to build all that expensive physical education classroom space. Shouldn't Senator Olson, as a prime sponsor of HB 1208, have to publicize that intent and the associated bill text so the physical education lobby can send delegates to testify in opposition at the first committee hearing?

Speaking of Russ and access to information, the Senate Majority Leader is still blocking me from following or re-Tweeting his Twitter feed. This petty insult to a constituent is akin to barring a citizen from asking a question at a crackerbarrel. What an embarrassment, and what a bad example for the Republicans Olson is trying to lead.

Let's get with the program, Republicans, in Washington and Pierre. The people want information, not closed-door meetings and sneaky bills and votes. And open up that Twitter feed, Russ!

Update 2011.02.13 12:22 CST: The Legislature does list all hoghoused bills on one convenient Hoghouse page. That service may not get us to the first hearing in time to testify, but it's still useful for keeping track of the monkey business in Pierre.