Himes Works to Make Government More Accountable and Transparent

Norwalk Hour, Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Saying Congress must take steps to restore people's confidence in their elected officials, U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, on Monday morning outlined measures that he said will "restore accountability and transparency" in government.

"We're always going to have disagreements on policy -- on taxes, on energy, on health care. Those disagreements are healthy and we should fight them out," said Himes, speaking outside The Norwalk Museum. "But we need people to have confidence in their government, and the steps that we are proposing today are designed to increase people's confidence in government."

Himes said a group of 20 to 30 members of Congress, including many freshmen, have put together a package of reforms that would require better accounting of expenses and improve transparency across government.

The measures among other things would require lawmakers to disclose earmark requests on the front pages of their websites; the Ethics Committee to issue preliminary reports within 90 days of the commencement of an investigation; make lawmakers' offices expenses more transparent; and reform Congressional travel.

The Democratic congressman said he returned from a trip to Afghanistan in December, as part of a Congressional delegation, with $400 in leftover taxpayer money. He said it took him and his staff several weeks and nearly two-dozen telephone calls to determine the appropriate method to return the funds. He said he eventually returned the excess allowance via a personal check to the State Department. The experience, nevertheless, demonstrated that "no clear process was in place to either require or track these remittances," according to Himes.

In a related matter, lawmakers approved in March legislation requiring lawmakers to deposit any unused portions of their office operational expenses at the end of a fiscal year into the treasury to be used for deficit reduction, according to Himes' office.

Himes said some of the reform measures, such as the Fair Elections Now Act, have been written into bills. He said the act would mimic Connecticut in providing a public financing mechanism.

"At the heart of so much of the problems that we have is the connection between money and politics, and we need to figure out a way to take the money out of the system, so that influence is about individual votes and not about dollars," Himes said.

Himes said lawmakers have been negotiating over the reform package for about two months and will announce it within the next couple weeks in Washington, D.C.

"This isn't the whole ball game," Himes said. "Frankly, if we could get the Fair Elections Now Act through, that would be a huge step in the right direction. But if it can't happen in big, big steps, it should happen in a series of small steps. So we're going to try to create some pressure to change business as usual."

The congressman he supports a measure that would prohibit lawmakers from accepting campaign contributions from persons for whom they've secured earmarks. Himes said the proposal is not part of the reform package.

"I've had a real difficult time getting that accepted in Congress," Himes said. "That's a no-brainer to me. If I get you an earmark, you can't give me campaign money. So there's other things I'm going to be pushing for that aren't in here, but that are just very important."

Himes was first elected to Congress in November 2008. He is expected to face Republican Dan Debicella, a state senator from Shelton, in the general election this fall. Debicella said earmarks should be eliminated altogether.

"Himes continued support for earmarks and pork-barrel spending is shocking. We should eliminate all earmarks," Debicella said. "Himes is proposing publicizing pork on Congressional websites rather than eliminate it. We need to get serious about reducing spending if we are going to eliminate our federal deficit and avoid tax increases."