|
 Since past Congresses have shown little effort to
achieve this end, it is therefore necessary to force a procedural
rule that will make it much more problematic for members of Congress
to continue to fund so called “pork projects” or legislative
earmarks. A spirit of total transparency is necessary in the
legislative process so that the American people can readily see how
much government largesse their Representative is spending on pet
projects that are largely deemed nonessential.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is a nonpartisan agency that
operates within the government to provide data-driven analyses of
any pending legislation that has been approved by a committee of the
House or Senate. Accordingly, the CBO uses its analytical skills to
make cost estimates of most pending legislative bills, but according
to congressional custom it does not follow this practice for
appropriations bills. As a result, these are the pieces of
legislation that often become filled with special earmarks during
those late evening sessions when the give-and-take of political
deal-making is in full swing. If we want to fix broken government,
the fix must begin here.
 Junius Rodriguez is proposing a procedural rule that would require
an estimate from the CBO on all pending bills that have made their
way through committee, including appropriations bills, so that an
analysis can be made regarding the necessary cost of the pending
legislation and the additional cost that would be added if
legislative earmarks were included. Since acronyms can serve a
useful purpose here, the CBO should be required to affix a label on
all pending legislation—the Fiscal Accountability Tracker (FAT)—to
provide the American people with the exact cost of legislation that
is pending before the U.S. Congress. Moreover, the procedural rule
would require a minimum of a forty-eight hour waiting period for the
CBO to conduct its estimate before legislation could be put forward
for a final vote. This would put both transparency and rationality
as the driving forces in the legislative process and would eliminate
the circumstance of late-night votes upon massive bills that no one
has read. [to
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 In short, this procedural rule is necessary because
we cannot allow congressional fat to clog the arteries of the body
politic. It is certainly possible that some of the items that are
currently funded as congressional pork projects might well have a
legitimate purpose, but if so, these projects must stand or fall on
their own merits and not as quid pro quo compensation for a
rightly-cast vote. Although every legislator would love to return
more funding in appropriations to the district than was paid out in
tax revenues, this is financially untenable and logically unsound.
The U.S. Congress must learn to live within its means.
If this procedural rule is established, the Fiscal Accountability
Tracker (FAT) label would be included on all legislation that is up
for consideration by the Congress. It would also be available for
public review online at the Library of Congress website (Thomas)
where voters can review legislation that is pending. This rule would
also provide a new metric by which we could measure the
effectiveness of legislators in keeping their promises regarding
fiscal accountability. Many would agree that Washington, D.C. needs
a diet, and perhaps the use of a FAT label is one method that can
begin the process of restoring our fiscal health and wellness. [Text from file received] Past related
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