Scott Garrett: “it is time for us to open up our books to the American people so that everyone in the public can be fully apprised as to…”

“it is time for us to open up our books to the American people so that everyone in the public can be fully apprised as to how their hard-earned dollars are spent by the Federal Government. I rise in support of this bill for reform. Accountability is not something that should be or could be postponed. It should be instinctive in all of our work as stewards of the American taxpayer. It should be reflective, but sadly it is not. I am encouraged that we are taking up this bill. I believe it is an important first step forward in accountability. The reforms we consider today in essence broaden the efforts of our earlier reforms and lobbying reform package of legislation that we passed earlier. It goes now to appropriations, authorization, and tax bills. We must stop the process of loading up authorization bills with pork the way we loaded up appropriations bills. That infamous Bridge to Nowhere, that was an appropriations bill. It was an earmark in a bill authorizing Federal spending giving the congressional imprimatur to the project. We must police Federal tax laws better as well. We load up our tax bills with special tax breaks, making the IRS Code totally incomprehensible even to the most skilled and practiced CPA. We cannot begin the process of simplifying the Tax Code until we end the practice of random tax cut earmarks.…”