For Immediate Release                Daytime contact: Alexa Moutevelis 202-467-5318
September 13, 2006                    After hours contact: Tom Finnigan 202-253-3852

CAGW Calls for Immediate Earmark Reform

Washington, D.C. Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today encouraged the House to follow through on its promise to reform earmarks internally, while renewing calls for earmark reform legislation.

During the August recess, Republican House Leaders released a joint statement outlining their plan to “immediately adopt and implement a comprehensive earmark reform rules change” if a conference report on lobbying reform had not been completed when Congress returned in September.  The main goal of the proposed rules change is to list earmarks and identify their sponsors in appropriations, authorization, and tax bills.  

“Earmark reform is essential for reducing corruption and waste in government and should not be delayed in the lead up to an election,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “Even if accomplished through internal rule changes, any reform that adds transparency to this expensive and corrosive practice would be a good thing for taxpayers.”

Changes to House rules would only be in effect through the end of the current Congress, and there is no guarantee that it would be renewed again next year.  The House rule would also have no effect on the Senate’s earmark procedure, but rule changes in the House could spur similar action in the Senate. 

“A rules change is a positive step, but only a comprehensive reform bill will end pork-barrel spending as we know it,” Schatz concluded. 

Most earmarks are quietly slipped into spending bills by individual appropriators without debate.  The 2006 Congressional Pig Book identified 9,963 pork projects costing a record $29 billion in the fiscal 2006 appropriations bills.  Earmarks have played a central role in a wave of recent ethics and lobbying scandals on Capitol Hill and taxpayers are taking a keen interest in earmark reform this election year.  An April Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that “among all Americans, a 39 percent plurality say the single most important thing for Congress to accomplish this year is curtailing budgetary ‘earmarks’ benefiting only certain constituents.” 

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. 

###