I wrote last week about U.S. Rep. Tom Udall publishing a list of his requests for local project funding on his Web site, and the importance of that because a lack of scrutiny has historically led to some wasteful spending by Congress and the president.
Because they haven’t published similar lists on their Web sites, I requested last week the lists of requests made by U.S. Reps. Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce.
Pearce’s office says his requests will be published on his Web site by the close of business on Tuesday.
As of today, I’ve also requested the lists of requests made by
This is important because, historically, these requests don’t get public scrutiny, or even much scrutiny by members of Congress, before those that make it into spending bills are approved. House Democrats passed a rule this year that requires such requests to be included in spending bills early enough that there’s time for scrutiny, then announced later that they won’t comply with the new rule because members of and staffers for the appropriations committee haven’t had time to review the 36,000 requests that were made.