The House Appropriations Committee took a positive step today on the long journey toward earmark reform. Chairman David Obey (D-WI) announced in a memo that the Committee “will not approve requests for earmarks that are directed to for-profit entities, and agency Inspectors General will be required to audit at least 5% of all earmarks directed to non-profit entities. Additionally, an online 'one-stop' link to all House Members’ appropriations earmark requests will be established to help the public easily view them.”

For years TCS has advocated for an end to the earmarking of taxpayer dollars to private and for-profit entities. Earmarking to private companies is ripe for abuse. One must only look as far as the scandals involving the PMA Group and former Rep. Duke Cunningham to see the potential pitfalls of skirting competitive and merit based processes.

Creating a single location online where interested taxpayers can view the earmark requests of all members of Congress is also a positive development. Bringing more transparency and accountability to the earmark process is key to reining in the potential abuses surrounding earmarks and the earmark process.

While we are encouraged by these further developments in earmark reform, we must not stop here. By the Chairman's own estimate, a ban on earmarks to private for profit entities would have reduced by 1,000 the number of earmarks for Fiscal Year 2010. By our calculations there were more than 9,000 earmarks in 2010. Even with this reduction, an inordinate amount of Congressional staff time and resources would still be devoted to combing through earmark requests rather than focusing on more pressing national issues.

Taxpayers and the President must also demand that the Senate follow the House and take this step on the long journey to complete earmark reform.