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Ryan
Calls for Greater Earmark Reform, Signs Pledge Regarding Future Requests
WASHINGTON – Wisconsin’s First District Congressman Paul Ryan, who has fought hard for earmark reform and other changes to improve fiscal accountability in Congress, today signed a new earmark reform pledge that goes above and beyond current earmark disclosure rules to boost transparency and demand higher standards from members of Congress for future earmark requests. The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), a national taxpayer advocacy group that aims to eliminate waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement in government, today unveiled this new pledge, which current members of the House and Senate have the opportunity to sign.
This call for higher standards and more effective disclosure comes at a time when it is becoming increasingly clear that the earmark disclosure rules enacted this year in Congress have not eliminated earmark overuse and abuse. A Nov. 4th article in the
New York Times, for example, led off its examination of earmarks in the military appropriations bill by noting: “Even though members of Congress cut back their pork barrel spending this year, House lawmakers still tacked on to the military appropriations bill $1.8 billion to pay 580 private companies for projects the Pentagon did not request.”
Similarly, an Oct. 30th article in The Wall Street Journal looked at how Congressman John Murtha – currently the chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense – has steered billions in federal spending to his Pennsylvania hometown.
Journal reporter John Wilke wrote: “A review by the Wall Street Journal of dozens of such contracts funded by Mr. Murtha’s committee shows that many weren’t sought by the military or federal agencies they were intended to benefit. Some were inefficient or mismanaged, according to interviews, public records and previously unpublished Pentagon audits. One Murtha-backed firm, ProLogic Inc., is under federal investigation for allegedly diverting public funds to develop commercial software, people close to the case say. The company denies wrongdoing and is in line to get millions of dollars more in the pending defense bill.”
“It has become all too clear, with every new media report on abusive, special-interest spending in Washington, that we have to drain this earmark swamp,” Congressman Ryan said. “For citizens to regain faith in their government, we have to change the way Congress spends taxpayer dollars. This earmark reform pledge is helpful because it calls on lawmakers to make sure that any earmarks are subject to intense scrutiny and meet strict standards. The point is to prevent abusive earmarks, change the culture that has allowed spending bills to become a wish-list for powerful members of Congress, and save taxpayer dollars in the process.”
Click
here for a copy of the CCAGW’s new Earmark Reform Pledge, which Congressman Ryan
signed. 
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Contact: Kate
Matus (202) 226-7326
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