In a victory for the American taxpayer and transparency in government, House Democrats agreed last night to scrap their plan to sneak billions in secret earmarks into the Congress’ annual spending bills. Under mounting pressure from united Republicans, the mass media and watch-dog groups, the Democratic Majority agreed to adopt earmark reforms passed during the Republican Congress.
"The Democrats campaigned on openness and transparency in government to get elected. Unfortunately, when it came time to stop campaigning and actually govern, they suffered a bout of collective amnesia," Shuster said.
"Instead of allowing every earmark to be debated in public with an up or down vote, the Democrats closed the door on public disclosure. They took a bigger step backwards this month by creating a secret slush fund for members to slip pet projects into spending bills in the dark of night without accountability," Shuster said.
Democrats gutted the rules of the House in January to prevent earmarks from being challenged on the House floor. Things got worse earlier this month when the House began considering its annual spending bills. The Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee David Obey announced that earmarks would not be included in House bills at all, but later inserted into a pot of money held over for conference negotiations between the House and the Senate. Inserting earmarks during conference or "air-dropping" as it is called prevents anyone from knowing which Member requested-projects are included in the final non-amendable version of spending legislation.
"In a throw-back to the days of closed door dealing in smoky back rooms of the Capitol, the Democrats cut the taxpayers out of the decision on how their money would be spent," Shuster said. "Instead of allowing the whole House and the American people decide which earmarks are worthy; they placed the final say in the hands of one man."
"The Republicans objected to this strong arm tactic and were joined by the media and the American people to shed sunlight into the earmark process. In the end, the Democrats retreated and adopted Republican reforms."
Democrats were forced to restore two critical GOP reforms
Full Disclosure of Earmarks
: Democrats were forced to restore last year’s Republican reforms that require full disclosure of all earmarks and who requested them – before
"Although this is a great victory for the American taxpayer and supporters of good government, the appropriations bills the House is considering spend too much," Shuster added. "Republicans in the House and the public must hold the new majority to their promise of fiscal responsibility to avoid an even larger tax hike to pay for their spending spree."
from last year that the new majority gutted once they assumed power:
