Taxpayers Seeking Accountability to Murtha: “[Expletive] Off”

Washington, D.C. – The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today slammed Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) and his colleagues for purposefully putting up roadblocks and barriers to hinder earmark accountability and reform.  According to Congressional Quarterly Weekly, Rep. Murtha’s response to a reporter’s inquiry regarding the difficulty of matching up earmark information in appropriations bills was: “So, you have to work.  Tough [expletive].”

“Rep. Murtha’s vulgar comments, along with the actions of his party, prove that the new majority is hostile to real reform,” said CCAGW President Tom Schatz.  “If this Congress were truly interested in transparency, earmark lists would be clear, searchable, comprehensive, and publicly accessible to the average citizen.  They should also be making it easier to challenge earmarks.”

New House rules require public disclosure of an earmark’s sponsor, recipient, amount, and justification.  The House Appropriation Committees have been including earmarks in committee reports but the reports are unsearchable, and the lists have been difficult to read with information spread throughout the report.  This is only one of many examples of members of Congress flouting the rules and playing games with reform.

CCAGW urges all members of Congress to sign and vote in favor of the discharge petition on H. Res. 479, which would guarantee that all earmarks, including those in tax and authorizing bills, are publicly disclosed and subject to challenge on the floor of the House.  So far, not a single Democrat has signed on, not even the so-called “Blue Dog Democrats,” many of whom ran for office and won on a pledge to make the earmark process more open and accountable to taxpayers.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is claiming that only earmarks included in appropriations bills can be subject to challenges on the Senate floor under the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007, which is supposed to cover authorization and tax bills as well. 

Rep. Murtha was named May Porker of the Month for throwing a temper tantrum and threatening his colleagues over a challenge to his $23 million pet project for the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) in Johnstown, Pa.  Murtha skirted House rules by submitting his required earmark certification more than a month late then threatened to block the earmarks of those who voted against his project, another rule violation.  A privileged resolution was submitted seeking a formal reprimand from the House but the resolution was killed on a 219-189 party line vote.  His bullying and obstruction continues unabated.

“In January, Democrats promised the most open and ethical Congress in history.  They now take every opportunity they can to find loopholes and get back to pork-barrel business as usual, insulting the intelligence of taxpayers in the process,” concluded Schatz.

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.