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Politics & Government

Rep. Himes Asserts Need For Government Reforms

Discovers no way to return expense funds.

NORWALK – A package of eight reforms concerning how representatives account for expense funds, reveal earmarks and proceed with ethics investigations of House members would increase the public's confidence in government, Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, announced Monday morning.

Himes said 16 months in office is long enough to observe "government is still not quite as transparent, as ethical and as generating of peoples' confidence as it should be."

The freshman Congressman said he is one of 20 to 30 new House members who have been working for two months on the reforms, which also would require committee chairs and ranking members to disclose if they have a financial interest in witnesses appearing before them, and improve access to vital government information.

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Most could be implemented as changes to House rules rather than requiring passage of legislation, Himes said, standing in front of the Norwalk Museum on North Main Street.

There has already been progress, he noted, including passage of a bill requiring federal agencies to write documents in easy-to-understand language.

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Also, at the end of a fiscal year, House members are now required to return to the Treasury unused operational allowances, and to make records of their yearly expenses more easily accessible online.

Himes said he personally experienced the need for a rule concerning returning funds after coming back from Afghanistan as a member of a Congressional delegation with $400 in unused per diem funds.

Himes said he discovered there was no policy on how to return the money and it would have gone unaccounted for had he kept it.

"It's a very sloppy and potentially dirty system," he said.

Himes said it took him and his staff several weeks to determine the appropriate method for returning the funds, and eventually he wrote a personal check to the State Department.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced last week the requirement to return funds, Himes said.

Another reform calls for House members to prominently display on their web site requests for earmarks. Himes said posting earmarks online is already a rule, but some members bury them or include them on "hidden webpages."

Earmarks are federal funds members request be given to specific projects or recipients in their districts without a public hearing or any review. Himes said a junior member of the House could receive about $10 million a year to distribute as earmarks.

As a personal policy, Himes said he does not accept or solicit campaign contributions from someone for whom he's obtained an earmark.

Any earmark money "should be tracked and transparent and awarded objectively," he said.

Himes said another reform he supports is passage of the Fair Elections Now Act, which would enable Congressional candidates to qualify for a limited public grant after collecting a set number of small contributions.

It would mimic Connecticut's program of public financing of campaigns, he said.

Finally, Himes said, the House Ethics Committee should be required to issue a preliminary report on an investigation of a member within 90 days of commencement.

Currently its takes the ethics panel "forever to render a decision," he said, and when you consider House members are elected every two years, "things need to become clear well within that two-year timeframe."

Himes said ethics reform also would entail appointing a "Congressional Staff Liaison" to the ethics committee to handle complaints from Congressional staff members about harassment from superiors.

Himes is up for reelection and will be challenged by Republican state Sen. Dan Debicella of Seymour, who was nominated at the GOP's state convention, which closed Saturday.

Debicella, 21st Dist., obtained 77 percent of the convention vote and defeated Easton First Selectman Thomas A. Herrmann, Westport businessman Rob Merkle, and Rick Torres, owner of Harborview Market in Fairfield, for nomination.

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