HOUSE Republican Leader John Boehner

Washington, Feb 21, 2008 -

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today blasted the Majority’s decision to shut down the House Republicans’ earmark reform website, http://www.earmarkreform.house.gov.  Boehner last summer requested to secure the web address and gained approval from the office of U.S. House of Representatives Chief Administrative Officer Daniel Beard to launch the site in an August 18, 2007 letter, a copy of which is available here. 

Earlier this month, House Republicans launched the website to serve as a hub for news and information regarding House GOP efforts to hold the Majority to its promises to fundamentally overhaul the taxpayer-funded earmark system.  Throughout the year, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and her Democratic colleagues have rejected House Republican calls for an immediate moratorium on all taxpayer-funded earmarks. 

Boehner wrote to Beard this afternoon, questioning his sudden decision to shut down the earmark reform website. 

“I am writing today to register my protest over this belated change, and to request a detailed explanation of the events that led your office to make this dramatic reversal,” wrote Boehner.  “Changing its address now will inevitably hamper the effectiveness of the new website, much to the convenience of the majority that runs the House.”

“[The] reversal comes just days after an independent report revealed that the freshman Democratic class in the House has been ‘showered in pork’ by the leaders of the current majority,” he continued.  “[The] reversal comes just weeks after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) – who as leader of the Democrat-controlled House has the power to shut down the earmark process in our chamber immediately – declined to join me and more than 150 other House members in supporting a total moratorium on all earmarks.”