Roll Call Editorial: Just Do It
Here we go again. Campaign finance reports for the fourth quarter of 2010 were due to be filed Jan. 31 — and those from House Members, the Republican and Democratic parties and all their campaign committees were instantly posted on the Web.
But not the Senate’s.
In 2000, the Senate exempted itself from the responsibility to digitally file campaign fundraising and spending reports, and all efforts to rectify this silly, antique and expensive exemption have failed.
This year, Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) has taken up the cause, along with Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.). In the new spirit of bipartisanship now prevailing in the Capitol — as witness the “gentlemen’s agreement” on Senate rules — we would hope the legislation would be swiftly approved by the Senate Rules and Administration Committee and passed into law.
