2128 Search Results Containing ":"
USA Today (Op-Ed): Donald Trump jeopardizes national security by ignoring intelligence community
The president's well-documented lies and exaggerations are disturbing and unprecedented, but when he openly ignores and ridicules the findings of the U.S. intelligence community, he puts American lives at risk, diminishes our role in the world, and makes us all less safe.
Found in: Common Cause
Washington Post: A GOP lawmaker wants to repeal child labor laws in his state. He employs hundreds of minors.
“It’s really just a system of self-policing,” said Julia Vaughn, policy director of Common Cause Indiana, a government watchdog group. “Obviously, the individuals have widely varying abilities to police this . . . widely varying in their sensitivity to what constitutes a conflict or not. In their mind, they’re protecting the institution in that way,” Vaughn added. “I think, long term, just the opposite happens. The institution is hurt when we constantly have these kinds of situations when everybody outside the statehouse seems to see a conflict of interest, but nobody inside the statehouse can see it.”
Found in: Common Cause
Toledo Blade: Can bills from Ohio lawmakers prevent government shutdowns?
“It seems to be somewhat of an attempt to provide Republican cover to show how they’re against potential government shutdown while still voting to continue to create a government shutdown,” said Aaron Scherb, director of legislative affairs with Common Cause, a government watchdog. “It seems to be a political tool. If Republicans in Congress wanted to prevent a government shutdown, they could have,” he said. “They controlled all levels of government when it started.”
Found in: Common Cause
U.S. News & World Report: Small Donors Silenced by Big Money in Politics
"It gives an opportunity for folks who are not themselves independently wealthy," says Cheri Quickmire, executive director of Common Cause in Connecticut, which advocates for public financing. The funds also free up policymakers from some of the constant fundraising that often goes hand in hand with holding office, she adds. "They don't have to go around with their hands out saying, 'Please give me money.'"
Found in: Common Cause
Indianapolis Star: Lawmaker who employs youths and wants to gut child labor laws has no conflict, panel says
Julia Vaughn, the policy director for the political watchdog group Common Cause Indiana, has routinely criticized Indiana law on matters concerning lawmakers’ conflict of interest for its vagueness and because it allows individual lawmakers to determine their need for an ethics hearing. "Ultimately I think Sen. Perfect's constituents should be able to decide if this is outside the boundaries, or if it's not," she said, arguing transparency is the most important aspect of the process.
Found in: Common Cause
TIME: Russia Wants to Undermine Trust in Elections. Here's How Rhode Island Is Fighting Back
“I’m optimistic that if Rhode Island is successful in proving that a precinct-based voting system can be efficiently audited, that other states with similar systems will take the leap,” says John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, who served as the initial force behind the state’s audit requirement. “I wasn’t sure that we’d be able to execute on that and have it go as smooth as it did,” he told the group at the conclusion of the pilot in January. “But,” he added, “I’ve walked away with the confidence that we can.”
Found in: Common Cause
Just Security (Op-Ed): Roger Stone Indictment Implicates Trump Campaign in Election Law Violations
The details of Stone’s allegedly illegal activities laid out in the indictment implicate the Trump campaign, and perhaps President Trump himself, in illegally soliciting a campaign contribution from a foreign national—namely, hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton, in the possession of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and originating with Russian military intelligence hackers.
Found in: Common Cause
The New Yorker: How Voting-Machine Lobbyists Undermine the Democratic Process
Something similar happened last fall in Delaware, where the Voting Equipment Selection Task Force also voted to replace its aging touch-screen machines with a variant of the ExpressVote system. When Jennifer Hill, at Common Cause Delaware, a government-accountability group, obtained all the bids from a public-records request, she found that “the Department of Elections had pretty much tailored the request for proposal in a way that eliminated venders whose primary business was to sell paper-ballot systems.” Hill also noted that a lobbyist for E.S. & S., who was “well-connected in the state,” helped “to shepherd this whole thing through.”
Found in: Common Cause
Shutdown Sharing: Neighbor Helping Neighbor
As this record-breaking government shutdown harms our economy and reputation in the world, the real hurt is felt by public servants in the federal workforce. It's time for us all to step up to help our neighbors. Lenny Mendonca has taken a leave from the Common Cause National Governing Board to serve as Chief Economic and Business Advisor to Gov. Gavin Newsome in California. He is Senior Partner Emeritus at McKinsey.
Found in: Common Cause
NBC News: With little oversight, the Pentagon uses role players for military training exercises
Aaron Scherb, the legislative affairs director at the nonprofit government watchdog Common Cause, said a comprehensive review of the program is long overdue especially in light of the Trump administration's decision to pull American troops out of countries like Afghanistan and Syria. "I think a GAO audit on the effectiveness of the program as well as a potential Department of Defense inspector general report would go a long way to determine how necessary and useful this program is, as the U.S. military continues to draw down in certain countries and regions around the world," Scherb said.