The Transparency Caucus: Big step toward fixing Washington

Twenty-seven House Republicans
and Democrats kicked off a congressional transparency caucus on Thursday with a
panel discussion on how the government can earn back Americans’ trust.

“We’re going to do a
review and find out whether the public accepts the current disclosure,”
said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., co-founding chairman of the caucus and
ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

“Our greatest challenge
and mandate in government is regaining the public’s trust,” said Rep. Mike
Quigley, D-Ill., the caucus’ other co-founding chairman. “It means not
just paying lip service, but taking financial responsibility, transparency and
ethics as seriously as the voters want us to. If we can make the tough
decisions and prove these as our priorities to the public, trust will follow.”

A disclosure: I’m on the board of Sunlight, and attended the launch panel.

More important … just reflecting on this now, I realized how
this applies to how U.S. taxpayers and Congress can work together to help set the
agenda in forthcoming elections. The challenge relates to trust and preventing
virtual ballot-box stuffing.

More later, hopefully soon …