Senate plans to post staff salaries, expenses on Web

How your senators are spending their multimillion dollar budgets for staff salaries, travel, and office expenses may soon be just a computer mouse click away.

The Senate is planning to follow the House in posting office expenses on the Internet instead of in volumes that must to be purchased or viewed in Capitol office buildings.

The idea, says Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is to let people see what their lawmakers are doing with their taxpayer-funded office accounts — and hold their feet to the fire for questionable expenses.

“They’ve got it on computer. Just now make it available so everybody in the country can see it,” Coburn said. “So if you see something that doesn’t look right, you can hold us accountable.”

Coburn’s move, expected to be approved today in a vote on a routine appropriations bill funding Congress’ own budget, would require office expenses be posted online. The House and Senate would have to pass a compromise final bill before the new rule would take effect.

The Senate’s move follows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s instructions last month to Chief Administrative Officer Dan Beard to post House members’ expense reports “online at the earliest date.” Beard has indicated the expense reports would be posted by Aug. 31 of this year.