Congress Quietly Deletes a Key Disclosure of Free Trips Lawmakers Take
Last edited Tue Jul 1, 2014, 12:00 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: National Journal
Congress Quietly Deletes a Key Disclosure of Free Trips Lawmakers Take
House Ethics reverses decades of precedent as lobbyist-sponsored lawmaker travel expands.
It's going to be a little more difficult to ferret out which members of Congress are lavished with all-expenses-paid trips around the world after the House has quietly stripped away the requirement that such privately sponsored travel be included on lawmakers' annual financial-disclosure forms.
The move, made behind closed doors and without a public announcement by the House Ethics Committee, reverses more than three decades of precedent. Gifts of free travel to lawmakers have appeared on the yearly financial form dating back its creation in the late 1970s, after the Watergate scandal. National Journal uncovered the deleted disclosure requirement when analyzing the most recent batch of yearly filings.
"This is such an obvious effort to avoid accountability," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "There's no legitimate reason. There's no good reason for it."
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"The more you can hide, the less accountable you can be," Sloan said of lawmakers. "It's clear these forms are useful for reporters and watchdogs, and obviously a little too useful."
Read more: http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/congress-quietly-deletes-a-key-disclosure-of-free-trips-lawmakers-take-20140630
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It's obvious that ethics isn't a requirement.
Thanks for the thread, kpete.
so fucking corrupt, the 'leaders' we have, they don't care if their corruption is front and center. And yeah, with this 'little deletion' they have their middle finger sticking up at us all. geez
How did money corruption get this prominent in our system. The RW has corrupted our system foe all of us for a long time to come, if not permanently. The start of the death of this system of government was the reagan administration, the coup de gras for our system of government was the bush cabal theft of election(s) in 2000. While many on here are still excusing the theft by saying gore "fought it all the way to SCOTUS"!!!!! It was a theft. Period. This system of politics running this country now, SHIT!!! SHIT I TELL YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
Tikki
Does the GOP think we are that stupid we won't notice these things. We need to hold them accountable.
