Solicitor's Office: Fed Ed Had No Say Over RTK

At Wednesday night's Allentown City Council meeting, Roger MacLean gave a pretty dramatic display of how Allentown responds to a Right-to-Know request. My impression was this is yet another indication of Mayor Edwin "Fed Ed" Pawlowski's lack of transparency.


On Thursday, I contracted the Solicitor's Office and learned that Fed Ed actually had nothing to do with how City lawyers responded. In addition, I was told that, in addition to the redacted material you see, the City furnished a great deal of information.


In fairness  to both the Solicitor's office and Fed Ed, I thought I should clarify what I wrote.

Congressman Dent: Where's the Sunshine?

You might not like LV Congressman Charlie Dent's view on health insurance reform, or his support of our troops in Afghanistan. But whether you are from the right or the left end of the political spectrum, you have to support his transparency and accountability.

He supports a bipartisan resolution requiring legislation and conference reports to be posted on the Internet for at least 72 hours before they receive a vote on the House floor. Last year, he conducted 29 town halls. In October, he demanded cameras in the powerful Rules Committee. "[W]e have seen 300-page amendments offered to the Rules Committee in the middle of the night and key policy proposals rejected on a straight party-line vote without thorough consideration. Sunlight will be a powerful disinfectant against these practices.” In December, he followed that up with a resolution demanding cameras in the powerful Ways and Means Committee. In January, he demanded that any health insurance compromise be conducted openly, instead of behind closed doors.

Now, as House Democrats keep trying to foist an unpopular health care bill on an unwilling public with convoluted procedural tricks like the Slaughter Rule, Dent has renewed his call for transparency and accountability in Louise Slaughter's powerful Rules Committee.

“The Rules Committee will be the first committee to review reconciliation policy that will have significant and long-lasting effects on the lives of the American people and our economy,” Congressman Dent said in a news release issued today. “Moreover, the actions of the Rules Committee will be a major factor in determining the outcome of this process. Recent reports have indicated that Chairwoman Slaughter will attempt to craft a procedural rule in the Committee that would, in effect, allow the Senate health care legislation to pass without even a direct up or down vote. The American people deserve to see what their elected representatives are doing behind the closed doors of the Rules Committee.”

“The Speaker has plainly warned the American public 'we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it' – a view of the democratic process I find reprehensible,” Congressman Dent said. “The Speaker and her allies are bending the rules to the point, I believe, they may be broken, all because she lacks the votes to pass this legislation honestly. House leadership has broken faith with the American people, and I hope to begin restoring that faith by shedding sunlight on these shadowy procedures.”

How about a flip cam? I've got two.