[ OUR OPINION ]
Secretive budget process
buries debate, accountability
THE ISSUERepublican leaders were tripped up by an obscure tax inspection provision in the massive spending bill.
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A sentence tucked away in the 3,000-page bill shed much-needed light on the secretive appropriations process that shuts out the public and most members of Congress.
It is a sly scheme that serves no purpose but to quash debate on how lawmakers use taxpayer money and provides them an easy escape from public accountability.
It allows for maneuvers with serious fiscal and civil consequences. For instance, the bill includes an unrelated provision that blocks states such as Hawaii from enforcing their own laws that require health-care providers, HMOs or insurers to pay for, provide or give referrals for reproductive health services, including abortions.
In another attack on privacy rights, the bill would have allowed the chairmen of the appropriations committees or anyone they designated to examine and make public the tax returns of Americans. But for the sharp eyes of an aide to Sen. Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat, the one-sentence provision would have become law.
Embarrassed Senate Republican leaders disavowed any knowledge of the provision. House Republicans first said the measure was necessary for IRS oversight, then denied they had inserted it into the bill, blaming the IRS and low-level staff members for its inclusion.
The issue erupted in a rare spate of shouting and accusations on the Senate floor and sent committee chairman Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican and close ally of Hawaii's Dan Inouye, breathlessly scurrying to clean up the mess. The bill was passed, but placed on hold until today when the House is expected to pass a correcting resolution. How the provision got into the bill should be sorted out and those responsible held liable.
Even more important, Congress should break its bad budget habit. House and Senate Republicans have been unable to reconcile their differences over domestic spending, delaying work on the annual budget measures until just hours before they must be approved for government operations to continue.
Instead of an orderly process, bills are shuffled together into one massive measure that's dropped in members' laps without enough time to even read the legislation.
The tactic allows lawmakers to pad their pork barrel projects, satisfy special interests and conceal controversial programs since the documents don't identify who proposed each item and why.
The abortion provision, unfortunately, remained part of the package on orders from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist even though it had never gone to the Senate floor. Frist promised to schedule a debate on a repeal before April. Republican Governor Lingle, who is pro-choice, and Hawaii's congressional delegation should hold him to that.
