Pressure Builds on Dems After Speaker Declines GOP Earmark Challenge
Pence: "Despite Promises of Reform from Democrats When They Won the Congressional Majority, Earmarking Continues to Spiral Out of Control"
Washington,
Feb 5, 2008 -
The heat is on House Democrats after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and other Democratic leaders rejected a Republican proposal for an immediate moratorium on all earmarks while a bipartisan select committee identifies ways to permanently change the spending process in Congress. Today’s Washington Times points out that the pressure is especially intense for freshman Democrats, many of whom promised to support sweeping earmark reform when they ran for Congress in 2006:
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“Republican strategists say freshmen House Democrats are vulnerable to charges they broke 2006 campaign promises to fight pork-barrel spending as a result of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to disregard Republican calls for more earmark reforms…”
“[M]rs. Pelosi, of California, ended the [Democratic] caucus’ annual retreat without addressing the earmark issue, snubbing House Republicans who proposed a bipartisan committee to write reform measures and a moratorium on earmarks.”
“‘House Republicans will use every means available to force votes on this issue until the earmark process is brought to an immediate halt,’ House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, of Ohio, said yesterday.”
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The fact is, as Speaker of the House, Rep. Pelosi has the power to bring the earmark process in the House to an immediate halt at any time. Her refusal to do so – especially after she suggested to the Wall Street Journal in 2006 that she would exercise that power if elected Speaker – speaks volumes, according to the Heritage Foundation’s blog, The Foundry: “Pelosi’s failure to respond to Boehner’s challenge is certainly disconcerting to taxpayers, who are fed up with Washington’s wasteful ways. It’s a harsh reality that even though some lawmakers finally appear committed to doing something about earmarks, there’s a long way to go to convince most members of Congress.”
Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) concurred and noted in an op-ed published in this morning’s Washington Times that since taking the Majority in Congress, Democrats have shown no desire to join Republicans in reforming the earmarking process:
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“Despite promises of reform from Democrats when they won the Congressional majority, earmarking continues to spiral out of control. Last year’s Omnibus spending bill was more than 3,400 pages long, and it wasn’t filed until after midnight on the very day the vote was held. Members did not have time to review it. If they had, they would have found that it contained wasteful earmark spending ranging from funding fruit fly research to building swimming pools to providing for wine and culinary centers.”
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Indeed, the spending habits of Congress – and pork-barrel earmarks, in particular – have become the clearest symbol of a broken Washington. In spite of the Democrats’ – leaders, rank-and-file Members, and freshmen alike – refusal to change the way Washington spends taxpayer dollars, House Republicans have committed themselves to a series of standards that will be the floor of their comprehensive earmark reform efforts. House Republicans have pledged to stop “monuments to me” because lawmakers should not use taxpayer money to fund projects named after themselves. They’ve promised to end the practice of “airdropping” earmarks into bills at the last minute. And they’ve vowed to do away with “fronts” or “pass-through” entities that mask the true recipients of taxpayer funds.
These steps represent the floor of Republican efforts on earmarks, not a ceiling. Where are the Majority’s efforts? If Speaker Pelosi’s silence on the GOP earmark moratorium challenge is any indication, they are nowhere to be found.
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