New Update: Exposing Earmarks
The secret is out!
U.S. Government
Kenneth Tomlinson Caught Horsing Around
Submitted by Judith Siers-Poisson on
The State Department Inspector General has released a report finding that Kenneth Tomlinson, the head of the agency overseeing most government broadcasts to foreign countries has used his office to run a “horse racing operation” and that he improperly put a friend on the payroll.
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Wanted: Wisconsin Media Activists for FCC Hearing
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
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Hill & Knowlton Reveal Who They Don't Work For
Submitted by Bob Burton on
While Hill & Knowlton are often coy about who they do work for, this week they issued a media release stating that they didn't work for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. "At Hill & Knowlton, we work hard to protect the reputations of our clients.
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Mad Cow Meets Terrorism
Submitted by Judith Siers-Poisson on
While scant serious attention is paid to mad cow disease by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S.
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Prez Press Room Retrofit Aiming at Message Control?
Submitted by Jonathan Rosenblum on
Technological advances in a refurbished White House Press Room open the door (or wall, actually) to daily presidential video news releases, says Professor Robert Thompson of Syracuse University. "The equivalent of press releases could go out without interruption or analysis," Thompson said of the new "video wall" that likely will be added to the press room when it reopens next year.
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Update: Exposing Earmarks
It has been nearly two weeks since our first post on earmarks, and there are some interesting updates to report. The Sunlight Foundation has continued to employ new and innovative tools in its quest to expose earmarks, which often glide into law without legislative or executive review. Sunlight, which cosponsors Congresspedia with the Center for Media and Democracy, has teamed up with Human Events Online, Citizens Against Government Waste, Porkbusters.org, The Heritage Foundation, The Club for Growth, Townhall.com, and the Washington Examiner (and Mark Tapscott) to sift through the 1,867 earmarks which were inserted into the 2007 Labor-Health and Human Services appropriations bill (H.R. 5647) (an increase from only 51 last year). The collaborative effort has led to the development of a comprehensive database of the earmarks, tracking the money to the designated state and program.
Government PR: Your Tax Dollars at Work
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"Agencies across government are under increasing pressure to sway public opinions -- either to win funding from Congress, to satisfy customers, to recruit new employees, to educate the public about new programs, to minimize fallout from controversial policies," writes Mollie Ziegler. With more U.S. federal agencies "applying sophisticated public relations tools and tactics," government spending on PR and marketing services skyrocketed from $39 million in 2001 to more than $400 million for 2006 to date.
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The Bipartisan Nature of the Revolving Door
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"Scores of Washington [Democrats]" are "ensconced in firms working to advance corporate agendas that don't look that different from policy we see emanating from the Bush administration," writes Russ Baker, summarizing a report released by his Real News Project.
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The Do-Nothingest Congress
Nearly sixty years ago President Harry S. Truman infamously derided the 1947-1948 Congress as the "Do-Nothing Congress" for meeting for only 108 days. Well, Harry must be rolling in his grave, because the current U.S. House of Representatives (now on their annual August break) is projected to spend a mere 79 days in session in 2006.
This is largely due to their extended "district work periods" in which they go home and meet with constituents, campaign and fit in a few rounds of golf. While most Americans returned from their holiday vacation in the first week of January, the House took nearly the entire month off, commencing the session on January 31st. In February, the House met for only 47 hours, an average work week for many Americans. While the year still has over 4 months to go, the calendar leaves a maximum of only 16 additional days for the House to complete its business. Meanwhile, the Senate is also projected to have a light workload this year, devoting only 125 days to legislative business, a 34-day drop from 2005.
As part of Congresspedia's continuing development of articles on how Congress works, we've looked back at the last dozen years of congressional calendars, which are set by the Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader. You can see the results at our new article on congressional calendars, which includes this interesting chart:
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