Alaska Senator Ted Stevens caves in and releases hold on transparency bill; then places hold again; then releases it

9/06/06

Washington, D.C.

From John Hart - Communications Director for U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D.
This morning, the office of U.S. Senator Ted Stevens informed us that Senator Stevens had lifted his hold on S. 2590, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006. This legislation, which we authored with U.S. Senator Barack Obama, will create a Google-like search engine to track government spending. This legislation has broad bipartisan support inside Congress and among the public. Thirty-six Senators have cosponsored the bill and more than 100 organizations ranging from Greenpeace to Focus on the Family have strongly endorsed this legislation.

Ted Stevens Although he skipped two hearings held on the bill, Senator Stevens requested a cost-benefit analysis of our bill which we provided to his staff last week. Only Senator Stevens can explain to taxpayers why he has reversed his position and reinstated his hold. Dr. Coburn believes the American people have a right to know how their tax-dollars are spent and looks forward to debating this issue on the floor of the United States Senate.

Today we were also disappointed to learn that at least one Democratic Senator has placed a hold on S. 2590. Last week, Senator Byrd admitted to placing a hold but said he lifted it. If a Democrat does have a hold they misled the blogger community who had ruled out every Democrat except for Byrd. Every Democrat is on the record publicly denying that they have a hold on S. 2590. http://porkbusters.org/secrethold.php

A Democratic hold is also surprising in light of Howard Dean's letter that includes a petition asking Senator Stevens to lift his hold. http://www.democrats.org/a/2006/08/what_is_he_hidi.php

Finally, we find it unusual that Senator Stevens blocked passage of S. 2590 to acquire a "cost-benefit analysis" when he allowed 8 other bills to pass by unanimous consent on the same night which cost taxpayers $1.8 billion.

Communications Director John Hart contacted AlaskaReport.com this afternoon and added "We're delighted Senator Stevens has again lifted his hold and we hope to add his name to the long list of cosponsors to the Coburn/Obama tranparency bill."