Letter to Leader Reid

Letter

Dear Leader Reid,

I write today to request that the Senate consider a bipartisan earmark transparency bill before the end of this Congressional session. Providing more openness and transparency to the earmark process will create greater accountability and more effectively engage our constituents in our efforts to create jobs and invest in our communities.

I, along with 27 of our colleagues, recently cosponsored the Earmark Transparency Act, S. 3335. This bill requires that all earmark requests made by Senators be listed in an easily searchable, public, database. Specifically, the legislation requires the database to include the following information about each federal funding request:

* Amount of initial request made by requestor;
* Amount approved by the Committee of jurisdiction;
* Amount approved in final legislation (if approved);
* Type of organization receiving the request (public, non-profit, or private for-profit entity);
* Project name, description and estimated completion date;
* Justification explaining how the spending item would benefit taxpayers;
* Description, if applicable, of all non-federal sources of funding for the Congressionally directed spending item;
* Requests and supplemental documents submitted to a committee of Congress.

This legislation has broad bipartisan support and it is my firm belief that more openness and transparency will improve the earmark process.

For the last three years, I have listed my earmark requests on my website and I have received positive feedback from my constituents. By providing my constituents with all the information about the requests I make, I've empowered citizens in New York to play a role in the process, articulating what projects they think are smart investments and areas where taxpayer money could be better invested.

As you know, President Obama has called for a single Web site to track all earmark requests and it is my hope that we may be able to create something that can be used during the appropriations process next year.

I realize the Senate schedule will be very busy this year, but I hope that I may work with you to carve out just a small amount of time to consider this important issue.

2. Reduce Corporate Special Interest Influence on Elections
With the corporate victory in the Citizens United U.S. Supreme Court case that allows corporations to spend limitless amounts of money on elections, the voice of corporate special interests will only grow and topple that of the average voter.

To help keep elections fair and honest, Senator Gillibrand is pushing the Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections (DISCLOSE) Act, legislation to hold big corporations accountable by making them stand by their political actions and disclose the primary funders of political advertising. Specifically, the legislation:

* Requires new disclaimers on all television advertisements funded by special interests.
* If a corporation is running the ad, the CEO will have to appear to at the end to say that he or she approved the message, just like a candidate must do today;
* If an advocacy organization is running the ad, both the head of the organization running the ad, and the top outside funder of the ad, will have to appear on camera. Additionally, a list of the top five funders to that organization will be displayed on the screen in an effort stop the funneling of big money through shadow groups to fund virtually anonymous political advertising -- following money to its origin, and making its sourcing public for the first time ever.

* Mandates an unprecedented level of disclosure not only of an organization's spending, but also its donors.
* Organizations will have a choice in disclosing their donors: They can either disclose all of their donors that have given in excess $1,000, or they can disclose only those donors who contribute to the group's Campaign-Related Activity Account, if they solely use that account for their spending;
* All spending intended to influence an election--whether on television, radio, print, online, direct mail, telephone, and billboards--would flow through this account. Every donor who contributes more than $1,000 would have to be disclosed;
* Organizations must disclose these donors to the FEC, the public on their websites, and to their shareholders and members through their annual and quarterly reports.

* Prevents foreign-controlled entities from spending unlimited sums in our elections through their U.S.-based subsidiaries.

* Bans companies with government contracts in excess of $50,000 from making unlimited expenditures.

* Ends expenditures by companies that receive government assistance, such as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

* Strengthens current law to grant lowest unit rate to candidates by giving those same rights to the parties -- on a limited geographic basis.

3. End Automatic Congressional Pay Raises

From 1991 to 2007, Congress voted to raise its own pay 11 times, for a total increase of more than $60,600 in their annual salary, according to CRS. A one-year elimination was ultimately included in the final appropriations bill and Members did not receive a pay raise in 2011. Gillibrand voted twice in the House of Representatives to end the automatic pay raise.

Senator Gillibrand has opposed Congressional pay raises, and is a proud cosponsor of legislation to permanently end the automatic pay raise for Members of Congress.

The automatic annual adjustment for Members of Congress is determined by a formula using a component of the Employment Cost Index, which measures rate of change in private sector pay. The adjustment automatically takes effect unless (1) Congress statutorily prohibits the adjustment; (2) Congress statutorily revises the adjustment; or (3) the annual base pay adjustment of General Schedule (GS) federal employees is established at a rate less than the scheduled increase for Members, in which case Members are paid the lower rate. Members may not receive an annual pay adjustment greater than 5 percent. This adjustment formula was established by the Ethics Reform Act of 1989.

Now Senator Gillibrand is joining with a bipartisan group of 20 of her colleagues to send a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to take up and pass S. 620, legislation that passed in the U.S. Senate last year to permanently end automatic pay raises.

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