Articles

Congress approves ethics, earmark reform

Public Agenda Alert
August 2, 2007

The Senate overwhelmingly passed new ethics legislation today that will put new limits on lobbying and require greater disclosure of "earmarks" that fund the pet projects of legislators. The House endorsed the legislation earlier this week. Earmarks have been a controversial source of pork-barrel spending over the past several years, in part because legislators are able to hide their sponsorship.

Public Agenda research suggests that reforming earmarks and congressional ethics may be fundamental to solving the country's fiscal problems. That's not because of the money that may be saved by reducing pork-barrel projects, but because building public trust is a necessary first step for changing budget priorities.

As part of the Facing Up to the Nation's Finances project, Public Agenda and Viewpont Learning conducted research on public attitudes about the country's long-term fiscal challenges. Contrary to what many leaders might think, we found that the public didn't require a lot of information to grasp the realities of our growing national debt and the crushing costs of Social Security and Medicare as the baby boomers retire.

The public is also willing to consider tough measures to meet these problems. But the public's deeply felt cynicism about government is a major barrier that must be addressed first. They were willing to support changes that require sacrifice, including program cuts and tax increases, but only if they could be assured that their tax money was being well spent.

Copyright 2007 Public Agenda. www.publicagenda.org.

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