Senate Appropriations Chairman Byrd (D-WV) announced earlier today that the Appropriations Committee will be disclosing earmarks beginning with the FY08 appropriations cycle. Please find attached the Senate Appropriations Committee release and below comments from Taxpayers for Common Sense President Ryan Alexander on the new Senate Appropriations Committee Earmark disclosure standards. After the statement are few facts about the new rules vis-a-vis S. 1.

“Tax day is the perfect time for the Senate Appropriations Committee to answer the public’s call for increased transparency about how Congress spends their precious tax dollars. The Senate voted unanimously for earmark transparency, and we applaud Sen. Byrd for responding to this clarion call in time for the new spending bills. Much credit is due to Sen. DeMint (R-SC) for keeping the pressure on the Senate to get going on earmark reform.

But this shift should not be regarded as a substitute for a new law or rules change governing the entire Senate. Under the standards announced today, the Senate Appropriations Committee decides what are and are not earmarks without much recourse. In effect, they become judge and jury on earmarks. Other committees are unaffected and seem to be waiting until they are forced to disclose by a new law.

We will work with the Committee and the Senate to ensure that the public gets the promised increased transparency and accountability as well as the decreased number of earmarks. This should also remind the House that they should pass the earmark and ethics bill that has been languishing there for months.”

A few points about the new “standards”:

• The new standards will not apply to earmarks in the FY2007 supplemental appropriations current being considered by Congress
• The new standards will not apply to other Senate Committees that consider earmarks. For example, the Environment and Public Works Committee is currently considering two bills (SAFETEA-LU (or transportation bill) technical corrections and the Water Resources Development Act). Both of these bills included hundreds of earmarks according to House disclosures.
• The new standards require that both the committee bill and report clearly identify earmarks and include the amount, the recipient (or location) and the purpose and that the bill and report be published on the internet. S. 1 required this information be made available 48 hours before consideration, the new committee rules are unclear about when the bill and the report will be made available to the public. However, S. 1 only required that the earmark and the sponsors name be listed in a searchable format in the report whereas the new rules make additional information available in the report.
• The new standards do not provide any recourse for challenging bills if the Appropriations committee fails to follow them.
• The new rules make no mention of conference reports. The “no financial interest” certification by Senators will only be “made available for public inspection.”  This generally means somebody has to physically visit the Senate to inspect these letters. S. 1 required that they be placed on the internet.
•  Although the Senate Appropriations Committee now has standards and the House has enacted rules changes, earmark transparency still needs to be enacted and the House needs to pass their version of S. 1. The Senate should enact a rules change governing the entire Senate until the bill is enacted.