Today, the House and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman announced new earmark reforms for FY10 spending bills. The new reforms: require lawmakers to post all of their earmark requests on their individual web sites; require earlier earmark disclosure; and make further commitment to earmark reductions. The following is a statement from Ms. Ryan Alexander, President of Taxpayers for Common Sense:

“The new reforms announced by Chairmen Obey and Inouye are a step in the right direction. By requiring lawmakers disclose their requests for earmarks, taxpayers will finally know how their elected representatives want to spend their money. But the devil is in the details, and today’s announcement is silent on some key details. For example, we don’t know whether request disclosures will include information about the true beneficiaries of individual earmarks. This information is critical both to give the taxpayers the clearest picture of lawmakers priorities and to hold lawmakers accountable. Without that critical information, the risk of future Duke Cunningham-like abuse still looms large.”

Background on proposed earmark reforms:

Earmark Request Disclosure – Lawmakers will be required to post all of their earmark requests, on their individual web sites. This will include purpose and why federal funds should be expended. However, it is unclear whether information on the requested amount or the intended beneficiary of the earmark will be included. The beneficiary information is critical. Too often lawmakers declare that earmarks are going to particular U.S. Army technology or facility, for instance, when in reality it is going to local company that has made campaign contributions to the lawmaker.

In addition, this will result in earmark requests disclosed on 535 different websites, most likely in different places and in different formats with no apparent enforcement mechanism. So while a step forward, it will still be difficult to assess the scope, scale and relationships of various earmark requests.

Accelerated Disclosure and Earmark Reductions – The proposal will also make existing earmark sponsor information available sooner in the process and expresses a commitment to further reduce earmark spending, albeit slightly. TCS has disagreed with Congress’ earmark calculations in the past, but a cut is a cut and we would welcome further reductions.

Further Reforms Needed – Among other reforms not included, it appears that disparities between earmark disclosure in the House and the Senate will continue. Currently, committees in the House are required to release successful earmark request letters (Appropriations Committee puts them on their web site) whereas the Senate is not required to release any comparable information. In addition, the reforms do not appear to affect authorization legislation such as the upcoming Highway Bill.