GOP House Members Call for Earmark Action; In other News U.S. Rep. Gary Peters Continues to Spend Massive Amounts of Federal Dollars on Chinese Credit

April 22, 2010, 7:36 pm House Repubs Call For Earmark Action
By BERNIE BECKER
A group of top House Republicans on Thursday called on their Democratic counterparts to team up for a one-year moratorium on all earmarks, with the savings shifted to pay down part of the deficit.

At a news conference, John Boehner, the House minority leader, and other Republicans said Americans saw earmarks – which allow individual lawmakers to set aside money for pet projects – as a symbol of government run amok and called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to schedule a vote on their proposal.

“Most Americans know that the earmark issue is emblematic of a greater problem in Washington,” said Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the No. 2 Republican in the House. “That Washington’s spending too much, it’s incurring too much debt, bringing on the need for higher taxes.”

House Republicans appear to be fairly unified on the resolution — Representative Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, who introduced the measure, said during the news conference that it had 164 co-sponsors and that Republicans in the chamber had “built considerable momentum on the issue.” But a top House Democrat slammed the resolution on Thursday, and earmarking appears to still be much in favor in the Senate.

House Republicans last month agreed to give up all earmarks — which make up a small portion of federal spending — for the next year. That move came as House Democratic leaders were swearing off awarding earmarks to for-profit companies.

Steny Hoyer, the House majority leader, said on Thursday that the Republicans’ new plan would give the executive branch too much power in deciding which projects get funded. And the zeal to take on earmarks does not seem to have caught on in the Senate, even as high-profile senators like Jim DeMint and John McCain have railed against the practice.

Mr. Boehner, for his part, did not seem all that concerned that his Republican colleagues in the Senate don’t seem too keen on tackling earmarks.

“Why don’t we fix one chamber at a time?” asked Mr. Boehner, an Ohio Republican. “And I think if Senate or House Democrats were to join us, I’m sure the Senate would take notice.”

The new resolution also calls on Congress to create a bipartisan commission with members from both chambers that would examine earmarks and the budget in general.

Mr. Boehner, when asked about Mr. Hoyer’s criticisms of the Republican proposal, said the commission would “look at a more responsible way for us to do our duty to our constituents in terms of how to do these earmarks that passes the straight face test. The current process doesn’t.”

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/house-repubs-call-for-earmark-action/?src=twt&twt=thecaucus