Tell US Transportation Secretary LaHood to reform "pay-to-play" politics

US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood (L) with US President Barack Obama. Image by Getty Images via Daylife

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From: Public Citizen

LaHood and pay-to-play corruption

Public Citizen recently published a press release calling for Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to end the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) practice of withholding funding from states seeking to curb corruption by enacting “pay-to-play” reforms. There are pay-to-play laws in several states (CT, IL, NJ, CO, SC, OH, KY, WV, OH) which could absurdly jeopardize their receipt of federal transportation funding - including stimulus money.

What Is a “Pay-to-Play” Contract?

‘Pay-to-play’ scenarios occur when businesses and potential contractors offer campaign contributions to public officials with the specific intention of gaining lucrative government contracts in the future. These self-interested contributions not only fuel the negative image of government contracts as widely corrupt, but actively create the real possibility that contracts will be awarded based on campaign contributions rather than professional merit.

What Can We Do?

States must be allowed to curb corruption by passing tough laws ending pay-to-play politics. The federal government should have no policy that undermines those efforts.
LaHood has an opportunity to do this. By proactively creating a formal new policy preventing administrators from withholding federal funding from states combating corruption in contracts, LaHood can rescind these Bush Administration practices and send a strong, positive message to other states that are considering enacting pay-to-play laws of their own.

With $45 billion allocated to transportation projects in the recently signed stimulus package, LaHood must formalize new policy in order to allow states to reform pay-to-play corruption. Help us convince LaHood to take this sensible action.

Public Citizen is happy to connect you with more information - feel free to email any time:

Kyle Stone
Online Organizer, Public Citizen
kstone@citizen.org

[Thank you to Kyle for bringing this to our attention]


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