Memo to Senate GOP: Stand Firm on Earmark and Ethics Reform
Press Release
For Immediate Release | Contacts: Leslie K. Paige (202) 467-5334 |
July 26, 2007 | Alexa Moutevelis (202) 467-5318 |
Washington, D.C. – The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today urged the Senate Republican leadership to stand up for earmark reform in response to widespread reports that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is planning to bypass a conference and get a bill that both the House and Senate will approve. There would be no hearings on such a bill, nor any opportunity to amend it. One possible outcome of such legislation is eliminating the reporting of bundling of contributions by lobbyists in “exchange” for gutting the earmark reforms.
“Make no mistake: if such a disgraceful back-room deal is successful, it will only happen with the tacit approval of the Senate GOP leadership. They should be fighting tooth and nail to reject it,” said CCAGW President Tom Schatz. “My question to them is, ‘Will you or will you not support the earmark reform provisions in S. 1 and take the necessary action to ensure they are included in either any conference report on S. 1, or in any separate bill that may be forthcoming that may not go to conference?’”
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has been stymied on three different occasions when he tried to get the Senate to simply adopt the earmark reform language contained in S. 1 as a Senate rule, which has led the Majority Leader to discuss bypassing the conference.
“Taxpayers need to be assured that the GOP leadership will not passively allow opponents of accountable and transparent government from both parties to gut the earmark reforms. Majority Leader Reid must be told that any bill without the earmark reform language in both S. 1 and House rules will be filibustered and defeated. To do anything less would open the door to weak or non-existent earmark reform and elicit a groundswell of citizen outrage,“ Schatz added.
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.