The AP is giving credit to two Republican senators, Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., for pressuring the Dem chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee Robert Byrd to change the much-criticized, often secretive way in which "earmarks" are inserted into appropriations legislation.
The rules would require all earmarks - the footnotes in bills that lawmakers use to deliver federal bacon to their states - be clearly identified in documents accompanying appropriations bills. The requesting senator, the recipient of the earmark and its purpose would have to be made public and posted on the Internet.I haven't been following this closely so I've no idea whether the AP has the course of events correctly. No doubt someone will point it out if they aren't.
Senators would also be required to certify that neither they nor their spouses would benefit financially from any earmark.
The idea is that greater openness and public scrutiny of earmarks - which critics often called ``pork barrel'' spending - would mean some of the more wasteful projects would get killed before being added to legislation.
``The changes that we are making in the appropriations process will help to restore confidence in the Congress,'' said Byrd. ``We will increase accountability and openness, while we also will work to substantially reduce the number of earmarks in legislation.''
But if so, credit where credit is due for both these senators and for the Dem majority. When the roles were reversed, the Republican majority just laughed off any such pressure. And a welcome return to the way Congress is supposed to work, rather than just being a rubber-stamp for the incumbent of the White House. I'll even forgive these particular senators the way in which their own majority presided over massive pork if this is a sign of some conservatives awakening from the dream of an eternal maority that people like Rove, Bush and DeLay led them into - and through that into a period of incredible corruption and abuse of power.
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