Encouraging yen for openness

Encouraging yen for openness

Canton Repository: The new legislative “supercommittee” in Congress is besieged by demands as it prepares to begin the high-stakes work of designing a plan to reduce federal budget deficits.

The 12 members, who include Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, are being urged by various members of Congress and interest groups to focus on jobs, avoid partisanship and accomplish any number of other tall orders.

All of this sounds like business as usual. This does not: A growing number of representatives and senators is asking the committee to do its work in public.

It’s an encouraging trend, and we are happy to see that Stark County’s representative in the House, Republican Jim Renacci, is taking a leading role.

Appeal for transparency

Many members of Congress are making broad appeals for transparency, but Renacci and his Democratic colleague Mike Quigley of Illinois are asking their House peers to support specific kinds of openness, which should make their requests harder to ignore or sidestep.

Wouldn’t it be great if this were business as usual in Congress?