Lawmakers attempt to hide budget information from the public

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/washington/secrecy/entries/2007/11/14/secrecy_provision_buried_in_ap.html

Secrecy provision buried in appropriations bill

By Rebecca Carr | Wednesday, November 14, 2007, 12:27 PM

Buried in the just released House and Senate Conference report for the Transportation-HUD spending bill is a provision that has open government groups worried.

The provision would ban the public from having timely access to budget information for the Transportation Department, according to one open government analyst.

Here’s how: each year, the appropriations committees receive access to documents known as “budget justifications” at the same time that the president’s annual budget is released to the public.

Last year, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., worked with the Office of Management and Budget to make those documents available to the public at the same time they were made available to appropriators.

The conference report language, which was not included in either the House or Senate versions of the bill, prohibits the public release of that information until several months after appropriators have received it.

The result is that many spending bills may be marked up before the public ever has a chance to examine an agency’s detailed justifications and descriptions of its budget requests, according to one concerned open government advocate.

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http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/washington/secrecy/entries/2007/11/14/secrecy_provision_buried_in_ap.html