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Thursday, September 14, 2006
By 245-171, House Adopts Earmark Disclosure Rule
After intense horse-trading and vote-counting, the House voted 245-171 this afternoon to impose upon itself a "house" rule requiring that a House committee identify the sponsor of each earmark contained in legislation that it reports. The rule will stay on the House books until the current Congress adjourns; it would have to be re-approved de novo to apply to succeeding Congresses.
Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and other GOP leaders made some late concessions, upward of a dozen Republican Appropriators voted for the measure against the wishes of Committee Chair Jerry Lewis (R-CA), and a third of the Democrats — bucking the position of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) -- supported it as well, to provide the comfortable margin in the end.
In the aftermath of the Jack Abramoff scandal and the resignation of disgraced former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) and months of House and Senate negotiations on a broader lobby reform bill , the House has now approved this modest and temporary rule.
Proponents regard today’s reform measure as an important precedent and beachhead for further legislative action. Opponents deride it as a fig-leaf.
In the Senate, Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) has now directed the top Republican and Democrat on the Rules and Administration Committee to develop a similar package of rules changes.
But, said Dave Obey (D-WI), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, "this bill represents the death of lobby reform.”
Posted by Dana Chasin
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