House Republicans scored a significant victory in their war on earmarks today when influential Democrat Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, broke with party leaders to call for an immediate moratorium on earmarks in 2009 spending bills. I think our best approach would be to …
House Republicans made a valiant stand on earmark reform today, falling just short in their effort to institute an immediate moratorium. By a vote of 204-196, the GOP’s procedural effort failed. Just seven Democrats voted with all Republicans: Reps. Joe Donnelley (Ind.), Tim Mahoney (Fla.), Baron Hill (Ind.), Brad Ellsworth …
Facing a potentially embarrassing defeat on earmarks tomorrow, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi finally decided to say something about Republicans’ request for an immediate earmark moratorium. In a letter to Minority Leader John Boehner tonight, Pelosi makes several misleading or downright inaccurate claims about the Democrats’ attempts to curtail earmarks. The …
House Republican leaders were serious when they promised to hold Democrats accountable for ignoring the request for an immediate earmark moratorium. The first test will come tomorrow when Minority Leader John Boehner and Whip Roy Blunt plan to force an earmark reform vote on the higher education authorization bill. The …
Among the many provisions of the Senate Finance Committee’s stimulus package is a legislative proposal to allow states to issue as much as $10 billion in new “mortgage bonds” to raise money to refinance the mortgage loans of troubled borrowers. States are already permitted limited use of such tax exempt …
The Club for Growth has decided to keep a running list of lawmakers who have sworn off earmarks. Just yesterday Rep. Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, called on the House Republican leadership team, appropriators and ranking committee members to give up earmarks as part of Minority Leader …
