As elected officials, we are accountable to the people we serve.  This law increases the level of that accountability on a critical issue – the spending of taxpayer money.  With this law, anyone with access to a computer can know how the federal government is spending their hard-earned tax dollars.

Combined with House passage of the line item veto and earmark reform, we are making progress on fiscal responsibility.  The projected deficit has been reduced by $127 billion, but there is more to do if we are to bring the budget into balance.  We begin by holding the line on spending.

Public transparency is an important tool in cutting wasteful spending.  People don’t go to a department store or restaurant and drop money without knowing what it’s going for…it makes sense to apply the same rule to government.

A recent article in The New York Times revealed that four Interior Department auditors have filed a lawsuit against the agency after senior agency officials suppressed their efforts to collect more than $30 million in fraudulent royalty underpayments by oil and gas companies that are operating on public property in the Gulf of Mexico.

Upon finding this out, several of my colleagues and I called for immediate congressional hearings and investigations into these reported efforts by senior Interior Department officials to allow oil and gas companies to cheat American taxpayers out of royalty payments.  We sent letters to House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-CA) and House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior Chairman Charles Taylor (R-NC), asking that oversight hearings be held on the matter before Congress adjourns for October.

It’s bad enough that oil and gas companies are cheating the American people out of tens of millions of dollars in royalty payments, but for all of this to be happening with the blessing of senior Interior Department officials is outrageous.  The Interior Department should be in the business of fighting for the best interests of the American people, not in the business of finding ways for oil and gas companies to cheat and lie in order to make even greater profits.  We need an investigation and hearings to determine who at the Interior Department prevented auditors from going after oil and gas companies that were cheating so that appropriate disciplinary and legal actions can be taken against those senior officials. Read the rest of this entry »

After nearly three years of working to ensure that the rights of Florida voters are protected, I have taken my fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Last week, I filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, arguing that Florida is currently not in compliance with the Bush v. Gore standard and the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. Currently, 52 counties in Florida use optical scan machines that allow for a manual recount, while the other 15 counties use touch-screen voting machines that have a paperless system, which cannot be manually recounted in the event of a close election.

In June, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed my federal lawsuit citing that there can be different voting systems within a state and the ability for some voters to have a manual recount while others do not does not unduly burden the voter.  However, prior to my federal appeals dismissal in April, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Steward v. Blackwell that due to differentiating voting systems throughout the state of Ohio, counties cannot ensure that all ballots will be counted, not allowing for equal protection for all voters.  In the opinion, 6th Circuit Judge Boyce F. Martin stated, “we easily conclude that the right to have one’s vote counted on equal terms is part of the right to vote.” Since differing opinions have been issued within the Federal Circuit Courts, I believe my elections lawsuit merits a review by the Supreme Court.

It is inexcusable that since the 2000 election, the voting rights of all Floridians have been ignored.  The unfortunate fact is that there is widespread disregard for voter rights in Florida and around the country and a disturbing failure by some elected officials to fully ensure the validity of their state’s electoral process. Despite growing public concern and
mounting evidence calling into question electronic voting machines, it is clear that Governor Bush and Secretary of State Cobb stand firm that the current system does not need to be fixed. Even Maryland’s Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich has questioned the accuracy of touch-screen voting machines and has called for a paper-trail, citing a lack of confidence in the current system.

It is my sincere hope that the Supreme Court will expeditiously hear my case and ultimately deliver an opinion that safeguards our nation’s democratic process and ensures fair and accurate elections.

Congress this week will pass the massive FY07 Defense Appropriations Bill, which will include almost $3 billion critically needed by our Air National Guard and Army National Guard.  Since 9/11 we have been asking our Guard members and Reservists (and their families, and employers, and communities) to take on more and more missions here and abroad.  And they have delivered spectacularly.  But along the way, in some ways we have neglected our side of the contract with them.

The National Guard at one point accounted for almost 40 percent of the troops on the ground in Iraq.  The hard duty of Iraq and Afghanistan has created a desperate need of replacements for equipment lost, broken, or left behind on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.  These shortfalls mean less equipment to handle emergencies at home, like natural disasters.  It’s irresponsible and counterproductive to simply neglect the needs of one of the country’s premier and primary defense forces, on which we rely so heavily.

As the co-chairs of the Senate’s National Guard Caucus, Senator Kit Bond and I have seen it as our responsibility to blow the whistle on these shortfalls and to try to convince Congress to do something about it.
Read the rest of this entry »

Be it a “wardrobe malfunction” or a fake news report, the American people lose when programming and editorial decisions are moved out of our communities and into corporate boardrooms. The health of our democracy depends on media outlets that are responsive to local needs, receptive to diverse views, and responsible stewards of the public airwaves.

By now, it should be clear as day that the FCC’s attempts to loosen U.S. media ownership rules threaten these values. In 2003, when the Commission tried to railroad through major rules changes with minimal public input, it was met with ardent opposition by millions of Americans from across the political spectrum, Members of Congress from both parties, and groups ranging from the National Rifle Association to MoveOn.org. In 2004, a U.S. Circuit Court echoed this outcry, calling portions of the rules “irrational” and “patently unreasonable” and sending the FCC back to the drawing board.

If further proof was needed, we received it last week in the form of revelations that the FCC may have suppressed two taxpayer-funded studies on the impact of media consolidation. The first study concluded that local TV stations air more local news than stations owned by networks or media conglomerates, directly contradicting arguments made by the FCC during the 2003 debate. The second found that the number of radio station owners fell by 35 percent between 1996 and 2003, offering further evidence of consolidation in that industry.

I recently authored a letter, cosigned by 33 colleagues, urging the FCC Inspector General to investigate this matter. If the FCC can’t be trusted to present the results of its own studies to the American public, how can it be trusted to act in the public’s interest when it comes to ownership of our airwaves?

My bill requires timely notice to individuals whose sensitive personal information could be compromised by a breach of data security at federal agencies. Until now, there has been no requirement that people be notified if their information is compromised. Under this legislation, the Administration must establish procedures for agencies to follow if sensitive personal information is lost or stolen and there is a reasonable risk of harm to an individual. And we provide a clear definition of the type of sensitive information we’re trying to protect.

Next, we give the agency Chief Information Officers the authority to ensure, when appropriate, that agency personnel comply with the information security laws already on the books.

Finally, we ensure that costly equipment containing potentially sensitive information is accounted for and secure. Half of the lost Census Bureau computers simply were not returned by departing or terminated employees. The agency did not track computer equipment, nor were employees held accountable for failing to return it. This is taxpayer funded equipment, containing sensitive information, and we need to know what we have and who has it at all times.

This bill is a first step, and I’m glad it’s going to be attached to Chairman Buyer’s VA legislation today. But if new policies and procedures are not forthcoming quickly, or if they lack the teeth to get the job done, I will revisit this matter with additional legislation.

Years ago, Secretary Rumsfeld in a probing internal memorandum asked about the metrics for measuring success or failure in the war on terror and the Iraq war. He raised an important question whether we were creating more terrorists than we were capturing or killing. Reports about the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) give a clear indication that the tragic answer to the Secretary’s inquiry is ‘yes, the problem is getting worse not better.’

Contrary to the President’s public declarations over the last several weeks, the Administration’s ‘stay the course’ doctrine is failing under almost every metric including the most important — whether we are reducing the number of jihadists bent on killing Americans.

The White House asserts that these reports are ‘not representative of the complete document.’  Congress should test that optimistic assessment with real oversight hearings, something this majority has thus far been unwilling to do. But unless we are willing to confront the cold hard facts, the Administration will continue to make the same mistakes over and over again.

With the end of the fiscal year just days away, the Bush administration and its Republican allies are trumpeting what they call “lower deficits.� Don’t be fooled by all their happy talk. The nation’s budget outlook is far worse than what is being claimed.

The increase in debt in 2006 will be far greater than the expected $260 billion deficit. That is because Social Security and Medicare trust funds, which are in temporary surplus, are being used to pay other bills. They are not counted as part of the deficit, but are added to the debt. This year alone, $177 billion of Social Security funds are being borrowed to cover other costs. When you add in those funds and other trust fund surpluses also being spent, the debt is expected to go up by $557 billion in 2006.

Federal debt has exploded under the Bush administration’s policies. At the end of 2001, the year the President took office, gross debt was $5.8 trillion. By the end of 2006, gross debt is estimated to reach $8.5 trillion. And gross debt is projected to soar to $11.6 trillion by the end of 2011.

The result is that we are becoming increasingly reliant on foreigners to buy our debt and finance our deficits.

Disturbingly, we are now the world’s largest debtor nation – responsible for 65 percent of world borrowing by nations.

This debt buildup is not sustainable. It is time for the Bush administration and the Republican Congress to stop hiding the true fiscal condition of the country from the American people.

The author of this post is a former Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services

Today, I was pleased to join consumer, patient and industry groups to announce the formation of a broad bipartisan coalition to build public support and increase funding for one of our most important federal agencies, the Food and Drug Administration.

The Coalition for a Stronger FDA believes that the FDA must be given the resources it needs to build on its position as the world’s premier consumer protection organization. The members of the Coalition understand that a stronger FDA is critical to not only protecting the food supply, but also ensuring that the next generation of medical innovations reach the market quickly and are as safe and effective as possible.

This is not a partisan issue. In fact, my two predecessors at HHS - Secretary Donna E. Shalala and Secretary Louis Sullivan - are serving with me as co-chairs of the Coalition. As Republicans and Democrats, we appreciate the important role the FDA plays in our daily lives by regulating roughly 25 percent of all consumer spending. Read the rest of this entry »

Nebraska exports more than three billion dollars worth of meat, grains, and renewable fuels every year making my state the 4th largest exporter of agriculture products in America. Nearly one fourth of Nebraskans are employed in farm or farm related jobs.

As Nebraska’s Senator and as a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, I represent Nebraska’s many agriculture interests because it is my job, but I am honored to know that my work has been noticed by two major farm groups.

I want to thank the Nebraska Farmers Union Political Action Committee and the National Farmers Union Political Action Committee for giving me their endorsements.

I appreciate the recognition and I will continue to fight for family farms, to increase the use of renewable fuels, to maintain a strong safety net for producers, and to make sure agriculture is treated fairly on world trade markets.