Gazette Opinion: Keeping track of Montana's delegation

Publication: The Billings Gazette

Editorial
July 11, 2007

Want to know what Jon Tester or Denny Rehberg are doing today in Washington, D.C.?

Check their congressional Web pages (tester.senate.gov and rehberg.house.gov) and there are the lawmakers' schedules. Last week when Congress was on Independence Day break, one could keep track of the senator and the representative. According to Tester's schedule, he started July 4 at the Laurel Jaycees pancake breakfast and then headed for Roundup's parade and a meeting with Roundup hospital directors. Rehberg's Web page said he had no public events scheduled on July 4, but on July 3, he held a listening session in Virginia City and on July 2, he met with several lumber businessmen as well as representatives of conservation organizations.

Credit Tester for starting this step toward greater transparency about the work of Congress. In campaigning for the Senate last year, he promised to publicly post his daily Senate schedule. Rehberg more recently started doing the same.

According to the Sunlight Foundation, which has spent the past year calling on all members of Congress to disclose their daily schedules, Rehberg and Tester are among only seven members who are providing this information to their constituents.

Max Baucus ought to join this bold minority movement in telling his employers (that's all of us Montanans) what he's doing in the job we're paying him to do. With Baucus disclosing his daily meetings, Montana would have the distinction of having the first entire delegation sharing this information publicly.

As chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, Baucus is busier than when he was merely the ranking member. All the more reason to have his staff put his schedule on line.

Baucus spokesman Barrett Kaiser said last week that the senator is considering posting his schedule.

A member of Congress' work schedule should be an open book. How about it, Max? You can be an accountability trend setter, too. Maybe the Wyoming, North and South Dakota delegations will follow suit? This isn't the first idea that started in Montana and benefitted the nation, but it may be the simplest.