Politics

Transparency Testimony Interrupted by Reconciliation Obstructionism

By Paul Blumenthal

“Sunlight is the best of disinfectants…” Those were practically the last words out of the mouth of the Sunlight Foundation’s Executive Director Ellen Miller as a hearing on federal financial management and transparency was ground to a halt by obstructive roadblocks thrown up by the minority in the wake of the approval to move forward and debate a reconciliation package that contains fixes to the newly minted health care reform law.

Senate rules require that hearings held after 2 p.m. be approved by unanimous consent to continue. After the Democratic majority won passage of a motion to proceed to debate the reconciliation bill by a vote of 56-40, Republicans refused to consent to the continuation of hearings. The Republicans also lost in an attempt to block the reconciliation package when Senate Parliamentarian ruled against an objection to the way an excise tax is used to fund the health care law.

Two other committee hearings were canceled including the one featuring the Sunlight Foundation’s Miller. These included a Commerce Committee hearing on broadband policy and an Energy & Natural Resources Committee hearing.

See the video below for the moment of cancellation. Also included is the testimony that Ellen was scheduled to deliver. To download a copy of the testimony, click here.



Testimony:
Sunlight Foundation Senate Committee on Homeland Security

Full post as published by Sunlight Foundation on March 23, 2010 (boomark / email).