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Wednesday, March 17, 2010
4:30 PM EDT
Adam Radman

Making Laws Should Be Transparent

Today, the Washington Times published an op-ed by Sandra Fabry, executive director of the Center for Fiscal Accountability, on fiscal transparency. More specifically, the piece centers on waiting periods and online posting requirements before politicians can vote on a particular piece of legislation. Transparency efforts focused on the spending outcomes have experienced success in a number of states over the last few years, but the next step needs to be making waiting periods and online posting requirements a priority.

Last September, Rasmussen Reports found that 83 percent of voters said they thought legislation should be available online for everyone to view before it is voted on by Congress. Of this percentage, 64 percent said they thought the appropriate amount of time for legislation to be available was two weeks.
 
Here’s a brief snippet of the op-ed:
Lawmakers and activists from around the country have made (and are making) great strides toward greater transparency in government spending in recent years. More than two dozen states have enacted legislation mandating the creation of searchable online databases detailing comprehensive information on government spending, and several governors have taken executive steps to create such Web sites. (The full list of state-spending-transparency Web sites is found at FiscalAccountability.org.)
 
But while Americans are appreciative of their ability to better scrutinize government expenditures through such Web sites, policy developments in Washington last year have made abundantly clear that true fiscal accountability in government doesn't just focus on "outcomes" (i.e. government spending), but starts with the legislative process. 
If you get a moment, I recommend checking out the full article over at the Washington Times. 
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