House GOP to launch new earmark offensive

House Republican leaders will launch a new offensive in the fight over earmark reform Thursday morning, seeking to expand earmark disclosure requirements to tax and authorization bills.

Currently, only earmarks in appropriations bills are subject to new transparency requirements.

{mosads}Watchdog groups and some appropriators favor a broadening of the policy, noting that the now infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” was included in a transportation authorization bill.

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) plans to offer a discharge petition that, if Republicans can gather the necessary 218 signatures, will force Democrats to vote on whether to expand the transparency requirements.

“The Democrats’ system is so ripe for abuse that it makes a mockery of their promise to run a more transparent and accountable Congress,” Boehner said in a statement. “It’s also a step backward from the system implemented by the Republican-led House in 2006 — the one they disingenuously decried as a sham for election-year politics — which applied earmark reform to all types of bills, including authorizing and tax bills.”

The petition will mark round two in the fiscal battle over earmark reform. Last June, members of the Republican Study Committee (RSC) led the charge in the GOP earmark battle. The protest was hinged on what they said was an attempt by Democratic leaders to “air drop” amendments into spending bills after they had gone through the House in an attempt to speed up the process and by doing so, keep the earmarks secret.

Democratic leaders fervently denied this charge and accused Republicans of obstructing the process to win political points.

“Republicans took no real action on earmarks when they were in charge,” said Stacey Bernards, spokeswoman for Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). “Now they are playing catch-up, and they have no credibility. Democrats have cut earmarks in half and enacted new rules that mean something, not just postured.”

Nevertheless, their protest caused the House floor to stall for days as RSC members weighed down the process through speeches and an avalanche of amendments. Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) at the time accused the Republicans of trying to “filibuster by amendments” on the floor.

Democratic leadership eventually reversed gears and the earmarks were inserted into the spending bills and publicly disclosed.
RSC Chairman Jeb Hensarling (Texas) said the petition is the latest move by Republicans to try further earmark reform and reiterate the need for fiscal responsibility.

“There are different kinds of pork: your sausage, your bacon, your ham … there are also different kinds of earmarks inside tax, appropriations and authorizing bills,” Hensarling said. “If they are going to do it, transparency should cut across all earmarks.

“One of the reasons that we lost in 2006 was that people did not feel we were living up to our own principles … people understand waste,” he added.

Earlier this year, RSC members, led by Rep. John Campbell (Calif.), touted a letter with the signatures of 147 Republicans who have pledged to vote to sustain a veto of appropriations bills that rise higher than the president’s recommended levels. But some of members who have signed the discharge petition voted for appropriations bills when they cleared the lower chamber, even though the White House had issued to veto them. These lawmakers indicated their position to spending bills will have exceptions.

Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio), who signed the letter as a statement that spending bills should not go over the president’s limit, said it was likely that he and other conference members would take a vote to sustain a presidential veto on a case-by-case basis.

He added that the letter would likely become a moot point, given the lack of action in the Senate on spending bills.

 “We are headed for a big omnibus, which will be a horse of a different color.”

Centrists could once again be in the spotlight should the bills come back to the floor after presidential vetoes.

Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) said yesterday that it was unlikely the GOP would get a boost from their moderates on a veto override either.

Conservatives are worried that the White House will back down in its showdown with Democratic leaders in order to avoid a government shutdown.

“That would just leave us out there,” said a GOP member who asked not to be identified.