LIEBERMAN’S BILL DELIBERATELY PRESERVED A MAJOR EARMARKING LOOPHOLE AT CENTER OF ABRAMOFF SCANDAL

Lieberman has said he opposes banning earmarking – the abusive practice at the center of the Abramoff scandal. Not surprisingly, the Christian Science Monitor noted that while Lieberman’s bill pretended to deal with earmarking, it preserved critical loopholes to invalidate those provisions. Specifically, the bill’s “ban on adding earmarks at the last minute can be circumvented by adding them before conference negotiations” – thus rendering these “reforms” meaningless. The newspaper also noted that Lieberman’s bill “bill failed to close the door on the vast number of ways lobbyists can help members of Congress, including bundling campaign contributions, sponsoring fundraisers, paying for member events, contributing to a lawmaker’s charity.” The watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense said: “We would have been much, much better off with no bill. Everything they did, there’s a simple way around it.” [Source: Christian Science Monitor, 3/21/06]