Gazette Opinion: A united front for openness

Publication: The Billings Gazette

September 26, 2007

We applaud this now-unanimous, three-out-of-three commitment to open government.

Last week, U.S. Sen. Max Baucus began posting on the Internet his previous day's schedule, including a list of the meetings he attended.

That earned Montana's congressional delegation the distinction of being the first in the nation to post its meeting schedules online.

In July, we noted in this space that Jon Tester (tester.senate.gov) was the first member of our delegation and one of the first in Congress to post his schedule. It was an election promise, and he carried through on it in January. Denny Rehberg (rehberg.house.gov) started posting his schedule in June.

At that time, we encouraged Baucus to be an "accountability trendsetter, too." He's now joined the club (baucus.senate.gov). Baucus spokesman Barrett Kaiser said that it took longer to work out a posting plan because of the senator's many obligations as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

"Max thinks that providing this schedule is an important way for Montana to keep up with it and for Montanans to know what Max is doing for them," Kaiser said.

Advocates of open government, including the Sunlight Foundation, are taking note of this development and will use it to push other members of the House and Senate to follow the Montana example. The foundation, a government watchdog group, says only eight members of Congress, including Tester, Rehberg and Baucus, are posting schedules.

On a state level, Secretary of State Brad Johnson said Friday that he would start posting his schedule this week, and he encouraged other state officeholders to do the same. We think that's a good idea, too. Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Attorney General Mike McGrath told the Associated Press that their schedules are available to those who ask. But that's not the same as posting them online.

Truth be told, these congressional schedules certainly won't be confused with the latest Harry Potter book. This is not page-turning drama. "Vote on Senate floor," "desk time," and "meeting with senior staff" were a few of the recent entries from the Montana delegation. But many items are informative and detailed. The more details that our delegation can provide, the better.

Montanans appreciate open government and will benefit from knowing how their elected officials are spending their time, with whom they are meeting and how they reach their decisions.