It’s easier, it seems, for lawmakers to regulate others than to regulate themselves. Ethics and transparency legislation has had a bumpy ride in the current legislative session.
Bidness As Usual
With a conflict disclosure system rife with holes, virtually toothless ethics laws often left to the interpretation of the lawmakers they are supposed to regulate, and a Legislature historically unwilling to make itself more transparent, Texans know exceedingly little about who or what influences the people elected to represent them. And they have no way to differentiate between lawmakers motivated entirely by the interests of their constituents and those in it for their own enrichment.
The Texas Tribune’s Bidness As Usual Project — an extensive reporting and data venture that spanned the 2013 legislative session — looked at these lawmakers and the ethics rules that govern them, addressing issues like conflicts of interest and breaches in public accountability.
In addition to dozens of stories analyzing everything from individual lawmakers’ personal interests to the state’s disclosure forms and ethics laws, the project included the Texas Tribune Ethics Explorer.
This interactive tool was designed to educate citizens on the degree to which legislators’ personal interests conflicted with the public interest when passing bills and setting policy. It included extensive research into all 180 members of the Texas Legislature, plus the governor and lieutenant governor, and provided details on a lawmaker’s employment history and financial records, stock holdings, property listings, campaign finance data and ethics investigations. The Explorer was created with the generous support of the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
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Bidness As Usual
Lawmaker Financial Statements Added to Ethics Explorer
State lawmakers’ personal financial statements for the 2012 calendar year were due April 30, but several lawmakers filed for extensions. As for the 115 lawmakers who did file, the Tribune has you covered. Use our Ethics Explorer to see what lawmakers disclosed in their most recent filings.
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Bidness As Usual
Irony Abounds in Debate Over Ethics Proposals
In this session’s ethics battles, watchdogs say there’s more contradiction than conviction.
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Bidness As Usual
House Sends Campaign Disclosure Bill to Perry
UPDATED: A divisive measure requiring the disclosure of certain unreported political donors passed the House on a 95-52 vote on Tuesday with little of Monday’s debate. The measure now heads to Gov. Rick Perry.
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Bidness As Usual
Judicial Pay Raises Bring a Little Something Extra
Lawmakers are talking seriously about a 21.5 percent pay raise for state district judges, which would increase the pensions of those same lawmakers by that same amount.
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Bidness As Usual
Lobbyist Transparency Bill Heads to Perry’s Desk
A transparency bill that would require lobbyists to disclose the names of lawmakers who pay them using campaign funds for services, including political consulting, is headed to Gov. Rick Perry’s desk.
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Bidness As Usual
House Disclosure Bill Won’t Get a Vote
UPDATED: Rep. Giovanni Capriglione’s bill to require legislators to disclose their business contracts with government entities won’t get a vote in the House — unless he can tack it onto an Ethics Commission reform bill.
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Bidness As Usual
Disclosure Bills Get Little Love From Top Leaders
With just four weeks remaining in the legislative session, there has been little to no pressure from the top — including key committee chairs — to pass measures that would force greater transparency upon Texas’ elected officials.
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Bidness As Usual
Interactive: Tracking Texas’ Ethics Legislation
State lawmakers have talked a big game this year on transparency and ethics, but with less than a month to go in the 83rd legislative session, the bills they’ve filed haven’t made much progress. Use our interactive to see where they stand.
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Bidness As Usual
Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Lawmaker
Giving up 20 weeks of every other year to serve in the Texas Legislature is a lot easier if you don’t have to worry about the paycheck you’re missing at home. It is easier, in other words, if you’re rich.