Lest you get too excited about Congress disclosing personal spending for lawmakers for the third quarter, the Washington Examiner makes some valuable observations to temper enthusiasm.
Nancy Pelosi has made much ado about this sunshine effort. OK, it’s terrific that Congress has made this information available online, so that Americans don’t have to travel to Washington, D.C., and root through books in an administration building’s basement. But the information is cryptic to say the least.
From Congress.org:
Claiming a milestone in Congressional transparency, the House on Monday for the first time released its quarterly expense reports online. But first, Congressional administrators erased a vast array of details on the expenditures of House Members, making it impossible to determine what much of the money was actually spent on.
As a result, while millions of Americans will for the first time be able to download and peruse the 3,400 pages detailing how Members spent their taxpayer-funded office accounts, they will no longer be able to see what items the Members purchased, which staffers were traveling on the taxpayer dime or where the Members are renting district offices.
…
In the printed versions of the disclosure reports covering April through June, there are hundreds of references to computers, laptops, televisions, cameras, printers and all sorts of office equipment, frequently described down to the model number.
In the new reports, all of those purchases are described simply as ?comp hardware purch? or ?equipment purchase.?
It’s nice to know that my congressman purchased “office equipment,” but I’d feel even more tickled to know whether that means he spent taxpayer dollars on a pricey Persian rug for his office or a necessary computer to help with constituent services.
Given the scandal in Great Britain, there is cause to wonder.
