House GOP shelves earmark moratorium plan

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. – House Republicans stopped short of imposing a yearlong moratorium on their earmarks Friday and instead called on Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to establish a bipartisan panel to work on reducing "pork-barrel spending."

After debating earmark reform during their annual retreat at The Greenbrier resort, GOP leaders in the lower chamber sent a letter to Pelosi stating that "House Republicans believe that the earmark system should be brought to an immediate halt, and a bipartisan select committee should be immediately be established for the purpose of identifying ways to bring fundamental change to the way in which Washington spends taxpayers' money."

{mosads}But House Republicans are not ready to ban their own earmarks — at least not until Democrats agree to do the same. While rejecting a plan floated by a group conservative members that would place a moratorium on GOP earmarks until the end of this year, House Republican leaders vowed to take a number of steps on combating pork, including not using taxpayer money to fund projects after themselves, not "airdropping" earmarks into bills in conference at the last minute, and detailing in the Congressional Record the rationales behind requested earmarks. House Republicans will proceed with the adoption of these reforms until a complete earmark moratorium is in place.

The letter also takes a bit of a shot at the Bush administration, noting that that the executive branch "asks for earmarks, too….Members of Congress should hold present and future Administrations accountable for the way in which taxpayer-funded earmarks are used."

The letter to the Speaker concludes, "We hope that by the end of your own Caucus retreat next week, you and all House Democrats will join us in supporting an immediate moratorium on all earmarks and the immediate formation of a bipartisan panel…"

 Click here to read letter