Chairman Waxman Breaks with Democratic Leaders, Joins with GOP in Support of Earmark Moratorium
Waxman: "I Think Our Best Approach Would Be to Suspend All Earmarks for the 2009 Appropriations Cycle While We Consider the Right Reforms for the Earmark Process"
Washington,
Feb 12, 2008 -
Following last week’s announcement that House Republicans will force continual votes on an earmark moratorium until the Majority finally commits to fundamental reform of the earmark process, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) broke ranks with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and other House Democratic leaders today by announcing his support for precisely the same reforms proposed by the House GOP. In a statement, Chairman Waxman explained that he would not request any earmarks during FY 2009 and called on his leadership to embrace comprehensive earmark reform:
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“I think our best approach would be to suspend all earmarks for the 2009 appropriations cycle while we consider the right reforms for the earmark process. As a result, I will not submit any requests to the Appropriations Committee for this fiscal year. I look forward, however, to working with Chairman Obey, Speaker Pelosi, and all my colleagues on improving the earmark process.”
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What Chairman Waxman is calling for is exactly what House Republicans have been calling for over the past several weeks. Three GOP members of the House Appropriations Committee – Reps. Jack Kingston of Georgia, Frank Wolf of Virginia, and Zach Wamp of Tennessee – have authored legislation that would bring the earmark process to a halt and establish a panel to identify ways to permanently change the spending process, just as Chairman Waxman suggests. This measure has been co-sponsored by 150 House Republicans, including the entire House Republican leadership team. House Republicans today also launched a website to serve as a hub for information regarding their efforts to hold the Majority to its promises to fundamentally overhaul the earmark system.
The fact is, as Speaker of the House, Rep. Pelosi has the power to shut down the chamber’s earmarking process immediately. However, she has declined to support the Kingston-Wolf-Wamp bill or the proposed moratorium. As a result, House Republicans last week forced the first of many votes to challenge the Majority to either embrace or reject the earmark moratorium. In spite of years of promises to reform the taxpayer-funded earmark process, though, 204 House Democrats – including Chairman Waxman – opposed the move, prompting House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) to warn the Majority that more earmark reform votes were on the horizon:
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“Washington is broken, and it will never be fixed until the earmarks stop and fundamental reform begins. [Last week’s] vote [was] not the end of the earmark reform fight. Rather, it [was] just the beginning. House Republicans will continue to force votes on this issue until the earmark process is brought to an immediate halt, and we hope the Majority eventually joins us.”
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With Chairman Waxman’s surprise announcement today that he supports the same reforms proposed by House Republicans, the Majority clearly is feeling pressure to begin working with Republicans to change the way Washington spends taxpayer dollars. Will Speaker Pelosi follow Chairman Waxman’s lead? Will anyone in the Democratic leadership? Will any rank-and-file Members of the Majority? With more earmark reform votes in store in the coming days and weeks, taxpayers are sure to get the answers to each of these questions very soon – and perhaps more Democrats will feel the heat, just as Chairman Waxman has.
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