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fairness require that those who stand to benefit should not be 

 making the decisions. Hopefully that will at least end up 

 evening out the playing field. 



A related change that could help make the existing financial 

 disclosure requirements more meaningful would be to require that 

 the financial interest be clearly stated for the record at the 

 time that a particular measure affecting that interest is under 

 discussion and is voted on. The current requirement leaves the 

 disclosed information in a council file drawer some place, only 

 to be discovered by the most diligent observer of the council 

 process. Moreover, inclusion in the record would make these 

 financial interests known to the Secretary at the same time that 

 the council action is reviewed for compliance with the National 

 Standards. Finally, such a requirement would make the 

 information available to a reviewing court which should have the 

 final word on whether council action complies with applicable 

 law. 



I would also urge the Committee to take a hard look at why 

 the FCMA — alone among all federal statutes — should be exempt 

 from the broad conflict of interest prohibitions contained in 18 

 U.S.C. § 208. With the fate (and temptation) of such a valuable 

 resource in the hands of council members there should be a 

 particularly heavy burden to justify the complete waiver of the 

 conflict of interest laws which were designed to provide a check 

 against these very temptations. If upon closer examination such 



