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Editorial: Earmark showdown
Wall Street Journal
September 13, 2006
Like drunks checking into rehab, House Republicans will take one final stab this week at reforming the "earmark" epidemic on Capitol Hill. So far this year more than 10,000 projects -- for baseball parks, bovine genetics, bicycle paths, beaver management grants and bridges to nowhere -- have been stashed into budget bills at a cost of nearly $30 billion. That ain't peanuts.
The proposed reform would require the disclosure of the Congressional sponsor of every earmark slipped into an appropriations bill. There would then be a three-day waiting period from the time these reports are issued until the House vote. Members could no longer vote for 1,000-page spending bills while claiming they didn't know about the fiscal mischief inside.
A related Senate bill by Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) would require that the dollar amounts and recipients of all grants and earmarked contracts be listed on a public data base. Voters could then determine how much money is given away each year to some 30,000 groups, ranging from Planned Parenthood to the California Raisin Board. This is called "transparency," which ought to be the least Congress can do for taxpayers. The Members can still request the earmarks, but they'd have to defend them in the sunlight -- which means running the risk of what Republican Jeff Flake of Arizona calls the public "shame factor."
One reason to suspect that these rules would deter the worst excesses is that Appropriators in both parties are groaning. They are insisting on loopholes that would exempt grants to state and local governments and hometown universities. They're also seeking an exemption for omnibus continuing resolution bills, which in some years contain a half-trillion dollars of spending crammed into one elephantine package. Unless these escape hatches are shut, earmark reform won't mean much.
A case in point is the HHS-Education spending bill, which so far contains 1,867 earmarks at a cost of just under $500 million. Members tell us the bill has caused a mini-rebellion because two of the three largest earmarkers are Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who walks away with $7.9 million worth of goodies, and David Obey, the ranking Democrat on Appropriations who receives $6.8 million for his Wisconsin district. This is the same Ms. Pelosi who earlier this session pledged to give up her pork to help balance the budget.
The House GOP leadership finally seems to comprehend the stakes in this pre-election budget fight. Majority Leader John Boehner calls the anti-earmarking bill "must-pass legislation," and has agreed to separate it from a bottled-up lobbying-reform bill. All that can block this from passing now are the spend-happy Republicans on Appropriations. If they succeed, they will have inflicted a far greater wound on their majority than the Democrats ever could.
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