One would be hard-pressed to find a member of Congress more accessible than Tucson Democrat Gabrielle Giffords. She should build on this spirit of transparency by disclosing her earmark requests in Congress, which she has so far declined to do.
In her first six months in office, Giffords has lived up to her promises to be a tireless advocate for her district. When she's not in Washington, D.C., she can usually be found shuttling from one meeting to another all over her sprawling district.
It's normal for her to attend three or four functions a day in several communities. On the Fourth of July, for example, she attended festivities in Sierra Vista, Tucson and Marana and Oro Valley. If a constituent has trouble meeting Giffords in public, it's usually because he or she hasn't bothered to step out of the front door.
In light of Giffords' accessibility, we find it disconcerting that she's been tight-lipped about her earmark requests. She should make them public, as others in Congress have done.
Earmarks are the term for taxpayer-funded projects in a lawmaker's district. They are often derided as "pork-barrel projects" or, simply, "pork." Such negative terms belie the importance of many earmarks that are worthwhile projects that would never be built or created without federal funds.
The cost of earmarks has tripled in the past 12 years, reaching $64 billion in fiscal year 2006. The Associated Press reported in June that 36,000 earmark requests have been submitted in Congress this year.
To combat what they see as wasteful spending, the media, including the Star, and several watchdog groups have been asking members of Congress to disclose their earmark requests. One such watchdog group is Citizens Against Government Waste, which keeps an updated list on its Web site (www.cagw.org) of lawmakers who have disclosed their spending proposals.
In Arizona, Republican Sen. Jon Kyl and Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva are the only members of the state's congressional delegation to disclose their earmark requests. The Citizens Against Government Waste site did not have updated information on the Grijalva proposals, which appeared in Friday's Star.
Republican Reps. Jeff Flake and John Shadegg and Sen. John McCain didn't request earmarks, according to the Web site.
Giffords and four other Arizona lawmakers have declined to publicize their spending proposals.
Grijalva disclosed that he put in for 61 projects totaling $178 million. Not all those projects will be funded. They'll be reviewed by a House committee, which will make the final decision on which projects get money.
"If I get 10 percent, I'm a happy camper," Grijalva told the Star's editorial board last week.
As for why he went public with his earmark requests when most other lawmakers have not, Grijalva told the Star's Daniel Scarpinato, "We released them because we don't have anything to be ashamed of in the list. There's nothing nefarious or underhanded."
Giffords, and all lawmakers, should have the same attitude. In the spirit of making government more transparent and cutting down on wasteful spending, they should disclose all earmark requests so that the proposals can be debated in Congress and in local communities as soon as possible. If all lawmakers are open and honest about earmarks, there's less potential for wasteful spending.
In a meeting with the Star's editorial board this week, Giffords remained resistant to the idea of disclosing her earmarks.
"I will release all the earmarks as they get funded," Giffords said. "Just because I have a neighboring congressman who decides to do something, I don't necessarily feel pressure to do the same thing.
"I just don't think that releasing a list of earmarks is the best transparent way to explain to the people all the work that you're doing."
Giffords and all members of Congress should remember, however, that it's the taxpayers' money they're advocating be spent.
The public has a right to know where its money may go.
