(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – On Wednesday, Congressman Dennis Moore (Third District – Kansas) introduced House Resolution 1008, a comprehensive earmark reform proposal that would amend the rules of the House of Representatives to provide for transparency in earmark requests. The legislation currently has 17 cosponsors.

“Since 1994, the number of earmarks has increased from 4,126 to over 15,000 in 2005,” said Congressman Moore. “Public scrutiny is definitely what the current earmarking process needs and we should implement meaningful reforms that bring transparency and accountability to the process.”

The Moore earmark reform proposal would not only require the public disclosure of earmark sponsor and recipient names, it would also require lawmakers to justify how each funding request is relevant to their district, and would mandate that lawmakers disclose any financial interest they or the intended recipient might have in an earmark. It also includes provisions that would guarantee sufficient time for public scrutiny of earmarks before they are voted on.

Moore’s earmark reform resolution is also comprehensive, and goes farther than other more modest proposals by requiring that information on all earmark requests be posted on publicly-accessible committee websites, and that the Clerk of the House establish a public website that provides links to committee websites with information on earmark requests.

“The need to control the growth of earmarks and provide the public with easily accessible information on earmarks should not be a partisan issue,” said Congressman Moore. “This is good government, pure and simple – not a Republican or a Democratic idea, but a straightforward, common sense idea.”

On Thursday, the Republican leadership successfully offered a proposal to alter House rules with regard to earmarks. Unfortunately, their proposal does not make any significant changes to the earmarking process beyond requiring identification of the lawmaker requesting each earmark. It also establishes a cumbersome process for determining which earmarks would be listed publicly and does not include any requirement that information be published online for public scrutiny.