Obama calls for new rules on earmarks
From NBC's Athena Jones
WASHINGTON -- While acknowledging that the $410 billion omnibus spending bill he planned to sign today contained billions of dollars in earmarks, President
Obama asked Congress to enact new rules to govern the practice.
The president called the spending bill "imperfect," but said it was necessary for the ongoing functions of government.
Video: Obama explains why some earmarks need to be scrutinized.
"The future demands that we operate in a different way than we have in the past," he said. "So let there be no doubt: this piece of legislation must mark an end to the old way of doing business, and the beginning of a new era of responsibility and accountability that the American people have every right to expect and to demand."
Earmarks came up frequently on the campaign trail in part because they were a signature issue of Obama's then-rival John McCain, who wanted to eliminate them. Candidate Obama promised to reform the earmarks process and "go line by line" through the budget to cut wasteful spending, but he never said he would seek to end the practice.
In defending earmarks this morning, the president said members of Congress know their districts best. White House officials have frequently said the stimulus package did not contain any earmarks and this morning, Obama highlighted work he had done on a 2007 law that made earmarks more transparent, but said more reform was needed.
Earmarks should have a "legitimate and worthy public purpose," should be posted on members' website in advance for public review and must be open to scrutiny at public hearings, the president said. In addition, earmarks destined for for-profit companies should be subject to competitive bidding, those going to private entities should receive a higher level of scrutiny and the administration will work with Congress to eliminate any earmarks it found did not have a legitimate public purpose.
Obama called on Congress to enact the proposed reforms this year. He also made a point of saying he found it "ironic" that some of the lawmakers who criticized the earmarks in the omnibus bill were responsible for some of the earmarks in it.
Democrats on the Hill released a statement before the president's speech showing they were already prepared to take action on the issue. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey have proposed reforms that would give the executive branch 20 days to review each earmark submitted and that would require competitive bidding for for-profit earmarks.
The White House released a statement from political scientist Norman Ornstein after the president's morning speech.
Ornstein, a scholar at the non-partisan American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, said eliminating all earmarks would be "fanciful and wrongheaded" because decisions on how to spend federal funds should be made by lawmakers with close ties to their communities but argued reform was needed and that Obama's proposals were a step in the right direction.
"President Obama has proposed a solid, practical and comprehensive set of new steps to take us much closer to the kind of meaningfully balanced system the American people deserve," the statement read in part. "The president's proposal is real reform."
Still, House Republican Leader John Boehner blasted the Obama administration for what he deemed overspending, arguing that with the $787 billion stimulus package and the omnibus bill, Washington Democrats will have spent "$1 billion every hour" since the president took office.
The Ohio Republican said Obama's decision to sign the earmark-laden omnibus bill suggested Washington was out of touch with the concerns of ordinary Americans during this recession.
"I'm disappointed that President Obama has given the green light to nearly 9,000 unscrutinized earmarks and billions more in other wasteful spending after making spending transparency and fiscal responsibility a cornerstone of his campaign for the White House," the statement read in part. "The American people know actions speak louder than words, and the President's new promises on earmark reform would carry greater weight if they had been accompanied by a veto keeping his earlier promises on earmark reform."
