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Public Citizen Applauds House Vote to Encourage Federal Workers to Watchdog Spending of Taxpayer Dollars

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We applaud the House of Representatives for answering
the call on Wednesday for more meaningful transparency and
accountability in the federal spending bill. House lawmakers passed a
critical, bipartisan whistleblower protection amendment offered by
Reps. Todd Platts (R-Pa.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) that will
strengthen and expand protections for federal workers and contractors
who report waste, fraud and abuse. We strongly urge the Senate to
include the same commonsense whistleblower protections in its stimulus
spending legislation.

This is a true victory for taxpayers who will be
well-served if the final stimulus bill empowers hard-working federal
employees and contractors who are uniquely positioned to observe and
report if funds are mishandled. Workplace retaliation for reporting
wrongdoing is real and ruthless. That’s why we have long fought for
these critical protections. 

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Manufacturers Lose Bid to Evade New Lobbying Law

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The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) lost round one of their attempt to overturn the part of last year’s landmark lobbying reform law which requires it to reveal the businesses funding the goliath lobbying organization.  Public Citizen, the Campaign Legal Center, and Democracy 21 filed an amicus brief [pdf] explaining how the disclosure requirement is constitutional, and should be kept intact.  U.S. District Judge Kollar-Kotelly agreed with us.

Judge Kollar-Kotelly dismissed NAM’s constitutional challenge, stating in her opinion:

The Court has conducted a searching review of the NAM’s opening brief, the Opposition filed by Defendant Taylor and the Opposition filed by the Legislative Defendants, the two amici briefs filed in this case by Citizens for Reform and Ethics in Washington (”CREW”) and Campaign Legal Center, Democracy 21, and Public Citizen (jointly the ”CLC Amici”), and the NAM’s Reply brief, as well as the relevant statutes and case law.

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Bush, Sunshine and Apple Pie

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What does it mean to have an open government?  As a catch phrase, it is appealing, like apple pie.  It seems especially American and downright fundamental: “a government by and for the people.”  It suggests that we are in power, and that through transparency we can avoid tyranny and oppression.

In truth, it is an ideal – one for which we are still reaching.  The Constitution, and the First Amendment in particular, provides the principles, but it has taken the efforts of many over two centuries to create a legal and practical framework for some transparency in government.  We might prefer that our elected officials spend their time pondering how to make the government more accountable to the people (instead of fundraising), but unfortunately, this is rarely the case.  Often we have gained more access through legislation, such as the Freedom of Information Act, enacted in response to some crisis of trust in our public officials.

Now is such a time.

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Time to Put Safety First

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Defective
and dangerous products – from lead-painted toys to vacuum cleaners that
catch fire – are being allowed onto our store shelves and into our
homes.  The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has failed to do
its job and protect American consumers. 

Public Citizen just released a study showing that manufacturers often
wait nearly three years before telling the CPSC about defective
products that can kill people – and the agency typically takes another seven months to warn the public.  Some of these products include infant
swings implicated in six deaths.

We need a strong, effective agency that can warn the public quickly
about dangerous and defective products – and enforce the law against
violators.  Under current law, the CPSC must ask permission from manufacturers
to get vital safety information to the public.  What’s more, the agency
can’t fine companies enough to make sure that they comply with the law.

The status quo is unacceptable – the CPSC should protect American consumers, not manufacturers!

The Senate commerce committee recently reported out the Consumer
Product Safety Reform Act of 2007 (S. 2045), a bill that would give the
CPSC much-needed muscle.  Now it goes to the full Senate for approval. 
But, as happens all too often in Washington, D.C., bills that are
carefully honed in committee become unrecognizable after amendments,
concessions and the inevitable congressional horse trading take their
toll on a proposal’s original intent.

Please urge your senators to ensure that the Senate bill passes
intact – without weakening changes – for everyone’s health and safety. 

Our Right to Know? Over Whose Dead Body?

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Bush recently told Israeli reporters: “I’ll be dead before the true history of the Bush administration is written.” 

Over his dead body?  Perhaps he meant that his "good works" would be told later, but as long as we let him keep his iron grip on presidential records, it could be several generations of Bushes before we know much of anything.

In 2001, Bush signed Executive Order 13233 to allow current and previous presidents to withhold documents and records without explanation INDEFINITELY.  What’s more, the order extends the presidents’ authority to control the records under to presidential family members, and vice presidents.

This unprecedented expansion of executive power flouts FOIA, precedent, and the principles of the Constitution.  The order, drafted by former Attorney General and close Bush friend Alberto Gonzales, eviscerates the post-Watergate Presidential Records Act, which made presidential records the property of the government, and then the public.  Our right to know should not be subject to the whims of the executive.

Legislation to repeal the order passed the House, but has been repeatedly blocked in the Senate.  First Senator Bunning was named as the holder. After feeling some pressure, Sen. Bunning removed his hold, and then friends of ours in the Senate attempted again to bring the bill up for a vote just before the holiday break.  It didn’t happen because, we are told, there is another objection from another unknown senator – no doubt carrying more water for the President. 

Sound familiar?

Meanwhile, the nation is consumed by one of the more thrilling primary elections in memory.  But where do the presidential candidates stand on the Presidential Records Act and presidential secrecy?  Senator Clinton recently was accused, perhaps unfairly, of preventing public access to Clinton Administration records.  Still, Senator Clinton is conspicuously not a cosponsor of the bill that would revoke the Bush Executive Order, the Presidential Records Act Amendments.

Why not? 

It’s been nearly two months since Philipe Reines, a spokesman for Clinton’s Senate office, told the Tribune that "Senator Clinton believes that President Bush’s 2001 Executive Order was wholly unnecessary and is inconsistent with the spirit of the Presidential Records Act, and therefore supports legislative efforts to reverse that order."

We’re still waiting for Clinton, and most of the other presidential candidates, to demonstrate that they believe the records belong to the people, not the President.  So far, only Senator Obama has put his name on the bill.

So while the world is enthralled with the presidential horse race, presidential records are hidden away and transparency transgressed again and again.  We can’t forget that much of our government remains in the hands of a few, until we take it back – again and again.

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