Congress' finances still in the cupboard

If you want to see how U.S. House members spend the millions of dollars available to them each year for office expenses, staff salaries and travel, you can ask to have the details mailed to you - or you can sift through 3,000-page quarterly reports tucked away in a cupboard in a basement office on Capitol Hill.

The Senate's reports, filed semiannually, are stored in a building nearby, but you might want to bring a magnifying glass to read those. As The Wall Street Journal recently noted, the information is presented in type roughly half the size of the print in a daily newspaper.

Of course, taxpayers interested in reading these reports really shouldn't have to wait by the mailbox (with a handcart or wheelbarrow), or descend into the most remote corridors of power or risk a squint-induced headache.

There's this thing called the Internet, and all manner of government agencies have successfully availed themselves of the opportunity to post millions of pages of public documents there.

Until recently, members of Congress have expended little effort to make their reports viewable online. But recent stories by The Journal, as well as lobbying by government watchdog groups, apparently spurred lawmakers into action.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently announced that quarterly reports for all members will be made available on the Internet beginning Aug. 31. The Senate hasn't taken a similar step yet, but sticking to the small-print status quo seems unlikely given the decision in the House.

Pelosi's push for greater accessibility is still a work in progress. The Sunlight Foundation, a group advocating more transparency in government, points out that her plan calls for the reports to be posted in a "portable document format," or PDF, file. A searchable database would be more useful for taxpayers who wish to look up and compare multiple reports.

In the majority of cases, it appears the reports will make for dull reading. But The Journal's review of 2008 expense reports turned up quite a few questionable items - including long-term rentals for luxury vehicles, bonuses for staff members, and a suspiciously hasty flurry of spending as the budget year drew to a close.

All of this spending should be fully disclosed, in an easily accessible manner. If the expenditures are worthwhile, lawmakers shouldn't have any qualms about making the details available for their constituents to examine online.