Johnson Votes for Earmark Reform
EARMARKS
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
September 18, 2006
WASHINGTON – The U.S. House voted overwhelmingly last Thursday to force members to reveal themselves when using the targeted spending practice known as earmarking.
Connecticut Rep. Nancy Johnson, a Republican, joined House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and other legislators in passing the new internal rule by voice vote.
“Taxpayers deserve to know how Congress allocates their hard-earned money,” Johnson said in a press release.
Earmarking is the name used when members of Congress insert into legislation targeted spending provisions that circumvent the usual appropriations processes, which usually includes evaluations of competing funding requests. Critics call the
practice, which has increased in recent years, pork-barreling.
The new measure added to the House rules includes provisions for spending, tax and authorization bills. Under the new rule all bills and committee reports must contain lists of earmarks and the House members who requested them.
“A list of earmark sponsors also makes it glaringly obvious that members of the appropriations committees are hoarding most of the pork for themselves,” said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, a group that advocates against the practice. “This inequity will hopefully spur more calls to funnel all federal grants through the competitive process.”
Earmarks have in recent years become a greater point of debate among members of Congress concerned about spending. In the wake of lobbying and corruption scandals, citizens and officials began pushing harder for a more transparent earmarking process.
“Egregious projects like the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ illustrates the rampant exploitation of the current earmarking process,” said Johnson, referring to a series of earmarks in 2005 totaling $223 million for a bridge connecting the Alaska town of Ketchikan to the Island of Gravina, which has a population of less than 50. The project became a well-known symbol for critics of earmarking.
Schatz said that the availability of the names will keep members of the House from pushing earmarks that are beneficial to their family members or campaign contributors.
“This vote proves that taxpayers’ outrage over wasteful spending can lead to real change,” said Schatz. “Transparency and accountability will definitely make it easier to identify and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.”
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