Republican Sens. Dean Heller (NV) and David Vitter (LA) are trying to shed some sunlight on all of the deficit super committee’s activities — including fundraising.
Even before the first super committee’s Thursday morning meeting began, which was open to the public and aired on C-SPAN, Heller introduced legislation to make all of the panel’s meetings, even the most informal, open to the public. Vitter introduced a companion bill that would require super committee members to disclose all campaign contributions within 48 hours of receiving them.
“The reason we’re here is that we’re opposed to inside baseball, and that’s what we’re seeing with this super committee,” he told reporters Thursday morning at a press conference.
“We want notification on every meeting that they have,” he said. “I can tell you right now that there have been private meetings already held. Not with perhaps the whole group but individually. Meetings have already been held [that weren’t public], and I want that to stop.”
“I would suggest that if the super committee does not adhere to these, we change their name to the super-secret committee,” Heller added.
Heller said he has sent letters to the super committee asking for complete transparency and an accounting of all of their meetings and conversations among members, but has yet to receive a response.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant, Both Heller and Vitter argued, and would ensure the joint House-Senate deficit panel would produce a better product if all of its meetings and interactions between its members are public and if all lawmakers assigned to the panel immediately disclose fundraising contributions from special interests.
Brian Fung contributed to this report.
