President Bush’s focus has shifted to an economic stimulus package, but that hasn’t discouraged fiscal conservatives from pursuing an executive order canceling lawmakers’ earmarks. A coalition of 24 groups signed a letter to Bush today asking him to bring an end to the “earmark era.”
January 18, 2008
The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear. Mr. President:
On behalf of the millions of grassroots Americans we represent, we write to ask you to protect taxpayers by issuing an Executive Order that instructs all Federal agencies to ignore non-legislative earmarks tucked into committee reports and statements of managers. Now is the time to take back the appropriations process for the American people. Just as many families make decisions to cut wasteful spending when needed, the federal government must also set priorities and cut spending when necessary.
A December 18 analysis by the Congressional Research Service concluded that it is clearly within your legal authority to eliminate all earmarks that appear in committee reports or manager’s statements. By eliminating the over 9,000 earmarks included in the report language of the FY08 Omnibus spending bill, you will send a clear message to Congress that wasteful, secretive spending of taxpayer dollars will not be tolerated.
This situation requires strong action from the President, not transparent political ploys that fail to get the job done. For example, a rescissions package, in which the President submits a list of already-passed provisions for cancellation, would be the equivalent of doing nothing because it requires action from the very same Congress that passed the wasteful earmarks. Similarly, an Executive Order covering only “air-dropped” earmarks, those not appearing in either the House or Senate version of a bill and added in conference, would be a weak answer to a serious problem. The omnibus appropriations bill contained only 300 air-dropped projects and such an order would provide little disincentive for future earmarks.
We urge you to listen to the voice of millions of citizens across the country who resent wasteful earmarking. You have the authority and opportunity to put Congress back on the path to fiscal responsibility. We hope you will seize this opportunity and protect the American taxpayer from further abuse by ending the earmark era. Thank you for your leadership on this issue.
Sincerely,
American Civil Rights Union
American Conservative Union
American Family Association
Americans for Prosperity
Americans for the Preservation of Liberty
Americans for Tax Reform
American Values
Citizens against Government Waste
Council for America
Catholic Vote.org
Coalitions for America
Concerned Women for America
Eagle Forum
English First
Evergreen Freedom Foundation
Family Research Council
Let Freedom Ring
National Center for Public Policy Research
National Taxpayers Union
Porkbusters.org
Rightmarch.com
Taxpayers for Common Sense
U.S. Business and Industry Council
60 Plus Association
If you’re on Facebook, please join the new group created by Phil Kerpen called Cancel Earmarks by Executive Order. There are already 200 people signed up as members.
With pressure mounting on President Bush to issue an executive order canceling lawmakers’ earmarks, Citizens Against Government Waste threw its weight behind the idea in a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Jim Nussle today.
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) was pleased to hear President Bush state in his December 29 radio address that he is disappointed that Congress sent him “a massive spending bill that includes about 9,800 earmarks.” He is correct when he said, “Earmarks are special interest items that are slipped into big spending bills … often at the last hour, without discussion or debate.” Furthermore, we were heartened to hear that the Administration is “reviewing options to address wasteful earmark spending.”
The best option to address the wasteful spending is for the President to issue an Executive Order instructing federal agencies to ignore the more than 9,000-plus earmarks found in the fiscal 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Act and 2,000-plus earmarks found in the Defense Appropriations Act.
As you know, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) asked the Congressional Research Service (CRS) for a legal analysis of the President’s authority to issue an Executive Order that would instruct federal agency officials to ignore congressional earmarks contained in committee report language and whether earmarks contained only in committee report language are legally binding on federal agencies. In its reply to Sen. DeMint (enclosed), the CRS stated that based on their review of the “relevant constitutional provisions, statutes, and applicable case law it appears that the President possesses the necessary legal and constitutional authority to issue such an executive order,” and that “the language of committee reports do not meet the procedural requirements of Article I of the Constitution – specifically, bicameralism and presentment – they are not laws and, therefore, are not legally binding on executive agencies.”
Again echoing the President’s call to Congress to “restrain spending, keep taxes low, and continue on a path towards a balanced budget” and ensure the money taxpayers “send to Washington is spent wisely – or not at all,” I urge President Bush and your office to issue an Executive Order directing federal agencies to ignore earmarks. Such an action would be controversial and no doubt many members of Congress would be upset that their pork-barrel spending would be halted. However, stopping earmark spending would go a long way in restoring fiscal order to Washington. Instead of wasting precious time and tax dollars to provide funds to construct a gas station in Wilberforce, Ohio; build an organized crime museum in Las Vegas, Nevada; and support the First Tee golf program, such an Executive Order would help Congress to focus on more important federal issues, such as saving Medicare from bankruptcy.
Conservative groups and bloggers are growing increasingly vocal about their desire for President Bush to issue an executive order canceling lawmakers’ earmarks in the omnibus spending bill. There is already widespread support for the idea among fiscal conservatives.
Today several groups called attention to the idea. Dick Armey, president of FreedomWorks, issued an action alert that asked his organization’s members to contact the White House. The letter reads in part:
I am writing to ask you to issue an executive order directing federal departments and agencies not to spend any tax dollars that aren’t explicitly appropriated in the text of the Fiscal Year 2008 Omnibus Spending Bill. If you are serious about stopping the plague of earmarks, using this power would be a great way to show Congress they can’t waste our tax dollars.
Gary Bauer, president of American Values, used his daily e-mail to supporters to call attention to the issue.
With each passing day, we learn more discouraging news about items tucked into the massive $550 billion “omnibus” spending bill Congress recently passed. One of the items that caught our attention was the inclusion of legislative language that allows the District of Columbia to spend taxpayer dollars on needle exchange programs. …
Here’s another example of misplaced spending priorities: During the Senate debate on the omnibus spending bill, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) tried to offer an amendment that would have redirected all earmarked spending to improving deficient roads and bridges, like the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis.
The Coburn amendment was denied even a vote due to an objection from Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). But in future years, visitors to Las Vegas will be able to stop by the new post office museum, thanks to a $200,000 earmark requested by Senator Reid and paid for by you.
Meanwhile, the issue is also gaining steam in the blogosphere. Ed Morrissey of Captain’s Quarters cited sources on Capitol Hill who noted that appropriators are leaning heavily on President Bush to back down from an executive order.
The EO advocates need to remind Bush that only through dramatic action can the GOP reclaim any momentum on fiscal responsibility. A rescission package would only play into the hands of the same people who larded up the spending bill while delivering it three months late.
President Bush used his weekly radio address to once again criticize Congress for including nearly 10,000 earmarks in the omnibus spending bill.
I’m disappointed that leaders in Congress sent me a massive spending bill that includes about 9,800 earmarks. Earmarks are special interest items that are slipped into big spending bills like this one — often at the last hour, without discussion or debate. Among the earmarks Congress approved was one for a prison museum and another for a sailing school. In the last election, congressional leaders ran on a promise that they would reform earmarks. They made some progress, but not nearly enough. So my Administration is reviewing options to address wasteful earmark spending.
The fact that Bush is still talking about doing something to end earmarks is a good sign, but this fight is far from over.
I am disappointed in the way the Congress compiled this legislation, including abandoning the goal I set early this year to reduce the number and cost of earmarks by half. Instead, the Congress dropped into the bill nearly 9,800 earmarks that total more than $10 billion. These projects are not funded through a merit-based process and provide a vehicle for wasteful Government spending.
Bush’s statement didn’t specific any specific steps he would take to trim the fat from the bill, but the White House later confirmed that Office of Management and Budget Director Jim Nussle was still exploring ways to curtain the earmarks.
A coalition of government watchdogs wrote to President Bush today asking him to issue an executive order directing all federal agencies to ignore non-legislative earmarks.
Mr. President:
This past week, Congress passed an omnibus spending bill that will soon be presented for your signature. While it is consistent with the total budget targets your administration has set, the 3,417 pages of the bill and associated reports are bloated by more than 9,000 earmarks which were subjected to little or no review during the scant 24 hours between the publishing of the bill text and the House voting to pass it. When combined with the more than 2,000 earmarks in the Defense Appropriations Bill this Congress has churned out over 11,000 earmarks this year. The vast majority of these earmarks do not even appear in the legislative text, but rather are buried in the committee reports that accompany the bill, further removing them from proper review and scrutiny. While the total number of earmarks is down compared to record highs and there is increased transparency, there are still far too many to be effectively vetted.
The rushed way in which Congress passed the omnibus — one of the largest pieces of legislation ever considered — made a mockery of our legislative process, and Congress itself bears the responsibility and shame for that. But you have the power to send a message both to Congress and the American people that the waste and corrupting influence of earmarks will not be tolerated. A December 18 legal analysis by the Congressional Research Service concluded that “because the language of committee reports do not meet the procedural requirements of Article I of the Constitution — specifically, bicameralism and presentment — they are not laws and, therefore, are not legally binding on executive agencies. … Given both the implied legal and constitutional authority as well as the long-standing accepted process of Presidents, it appears that a President can, if he so chooses, issue an executive order with respect to earmarks contained solely in committee reports and not in any way incorporated into the legislative text.”
On December 20, you stated that you were “instructing the budget director to review options for dealing with the wasteful spending in the omnibus bill.” We applaud you for this leadership, and ask that you follow through by issuing an executive order formally directing all Federal agencies to ignore non-legislative earmarks tucked into committee reports and statements of managers. Such an action is within your Constitutional powers, and would strike a blow for fiscal responsibility now while setting a valuable precedent for the future.
Tell Congress and the American public that the era of earmarks is over, and that the Congressional “favor factory” which mints earmarks is closed. The American taxpayer will applaud such an action, as will the many honest legislators in Congress who are trying to fight the broken and corrupt appropriations machine. We hope that you embrace this opportunity, and thank you for your leadership on this issue.
Sincerely,
American Conservative Union
American Values
Americans for Prosperity
Americans for Tax Reform
Calvert Institute for Policy Research
Citizens Against Government Waste
Club for Growth
Commonwealth Foundation
Eagle Forum
Evergreen Freedom Foundation
Family Research Council
Freedom Works
Illinois Policy Institute
Larry Kudlow, Kudlow & Company, LLC
The National Tax Limitation Committee
National Taxpayers Union
Porkbusters.org
Taxpayers for Common Sense
The Heritage Foundation’s Brian Riedl discusses the explosion of earmarks and the budget gimmicks included in the fiscal 2008 omnibus spending bill in a segment on Fox News.
House Republican Whip Roy Blunt joined Sen. Tom Coburn and Rep. Jeb Hensarling at The Heritage Foundation on Tuesday to address conservative bloggers about the omnibus. Click below to watch video of Blunt’s opening remarks.
Republican Study Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.) plans to seek an immediate suspension of the earmarking process after learning Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-Mich.) suggested to Speaker Nancy Pelosi that the procurement of additional earmarks could assist the campaigns of vulnerable Democrats.
In a letter to Pelosi last Thursday, Kilpatrick noted the unequal distribution of earmarks and suggested a more favorable distribution of taxpayer-funded earmarks would help members of the Congressional Black Caucus in their political campaigns.
Inherently, we understand that this earmark process is not equitable. … There are a few examples of where your help could significantly assist a few members in highly contested races.
Hensarling cited a report earlier this year from the Wall Street Journal, which reported that veteran appropriator Rep. John Murtha had “rebuilt [his] hometown on earmarks,” noting that “Johnstown’s good fortune has come at the expense of taxpayers everywhere else.”
“The Democratic Leadership of the House is cutting in half the number of earmarks in this year’s appropriation bills.”
– House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, March 13, 2007
So much for Pelosi’s pledge. The mammoth $515 billion omnibus spending bill obliterates the Democrats’ promise to slash pork-barrel projects. As the Senate moves toward consideration of the bill, a thorough analysis reveals the omnibus actually increases the number of earmarks to a total of 11,331 — a 426% increase over the number from last year, when there were just 2,658 earmarks last year. The omnibus alone contains at least 9,170 pork projects, comprising 696 pages, or one-fifth, of the bill.
Here are some of the highlights:
• Beverly Hills Veterans Park ($4,000,000,000)
• Rangel Monument to Me ($2,000,000)
• Rodent control in Alaska ($113,000)
• Olive fruit fly research in France ($213,000)
• Hunting and Fishing Museum in Pennsylvania ($200,000)
• Louis Armstrong Museum in New York ($150,000)
• A bike trail in Minnesota ($700,000)
• A river walk in Massachusetts ($1,000,000)
• A post office museum in downtown Las Vegas ($200,000); and
• The Lincoln Park Zoo in Illinois ($37,000)
No one knows the exact cost of the earmarks in the mammoth omnibus, but they could easily exceed $18 billion, which nearly matches that $18.9 billion spent on earmarks in FY2005.
In comparison, a continuing resolution would result in 2,161 earmarks, which were already included in the Defense appropriations bill.
Before the omnibus bill was released, The Heritage Foundation set five key benchmarks for determining whether the forthcoming bill would be the fiscally responsible. Brian Riedl explains why bill fails to meet four of those benchmarks.
Congress pledged to limit discretionary spending to President Bush’s $932 billion request and to cut the number of earmarks in half from the 2005 peak level. This omnibus bill breaks both pledges. With more than 11,000 earmarks costing approximately $20 billion, Congress decided to bust the budget by $20 billion through the use of gimmicks. Lawmakers should reject such irresponsible budgeting and eliminate the pork projects in order to offset any new spending. Otherwise, President Bush should veto this bill, and insist on a year-long continuing resolution that would likely save taxpayers more than $30 billion relative to the omnibus.
President Bush’s year-long fight with Democrats over federal spending gave conservatives hope that the White House had finally adopted the backbone needed to stand firm for fiscal restraint. It was less clear yesterday the Bush Administration would carry that fight into 2008. The release of a Statement of Administration Policy clearly stated Bush’s intention to veto the omnibus, as it’s currently written. However, Bush appears to be leaving the door open to signing the mammoth bill if money for U.S. troops in Iraq is added.
With the Senate set to tackle the Iraq funding issue as early as today, it appears Congress and the White House are closer to striking a deal than conservatives would like. Yesterday, Office of Management and Budget Director Jim Nussle said he was generally pleased with the concessions Democrats made regarding policy changes in the bill. He all but dismissed the notion of a veto for the explosion of earmarks, which the White House wanted cut in half. And Nussle appeared resigned to the fact that the administration would have to swallow nearly $20 billion in “emergency” spending and budget gimmicks.
The White House’s position has left groups like the Club for Growth deeply disappointed and conservatives frustrated by the apparent willingness to settle for a bad bill.
Less than 24 hours after Democrats unveiled a mammoth omnibus spending bill, the House of Representatives moved swiftly last night to approve it, shifting the battle to the Senate. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised to add about $40 billion to the bill for U.S. troops in Iraq; Democrats don’t appear to have the votes to stop it.
The House took two votes last night, the first for a bill without money for U.S. troops in Afghanistan. It won approval, 253 to 154, with 41 Republicans breaking ranks to support the measure. Eight Democrats voted with the GOP. The second vote, on a bill that included $31 billion for fighting in Afghanistan, was much closer, 206 to 201. Democrats needed to woo five Republicans to back the measure otherwise it would have failed. Eighteen Democrats voted against the measure.
Republicans voted against the latter bill because it included money only for troops serving in Afghanistan, suggesting Congress viewed the military men and women in Iraq differently. With the legislation now moving to the Senate, Republicans expect to add the Iraq money to the bill.
Our friend Rob Neppell of Porkbusters has worked his magic and turned the large PDFs into searchable and linkable HTML documents. You can now type in a word and get back the results of your search or scan the document section by section and page by page. This will be particularly useful for anyone who wants to link to a specific page in the omnibus, which isn’t possible with the PDFs.
U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) made the following statement today regarding the release of the proposed 3,565-page Fiscal Year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations bill.
“Republicans were expecting something the President could sign with a straight face but this bill is completely unacceptable,” said Senator DeMint. “We’ve only had it for a few hours and it’s clear this is a bad deal. Instead of passing a clean bill, Democrats have packed it full of controversial policy riders, wasteful earmarks, and budget gimmicks that add billions in additional domestic spending over the President’s level.”
“I’m sure Democrats will try to ram this down our throats before anyone can read it, but we should do everything we can to stop them. I know many in Congress are anxious to get home for the holidays but we have a responsibility to stop wasteful Washington spending and protect American taxpayers,” said Senator DeMint.
After an initial review of the legislation, several wasteful and unnecessary provisions have already been identified:
· Earmarks: Instead of reducing the number of pork projects in the federal budget, the bill drives the number of earmarks up from last year. The bill contains over 8,000 earmarks, bringing the total for 2008 up to over 10,000 earmarks compared to just 2,658 in 2007.
· Spending Gimmicks: Instead of cutting wasteful spending out of the bill to bring its cost down to the President’s level, the bill uses budget tricks and gimmicks to hide at least $14 billion in extra domestic spending.
· Policy Riders: Instead of limiting the package to spending needed to fund government operations, the bill includes unrelated policy items. Many of these riders are backed by special interests, such as organized labor, and could not win passage on their own.
Democrats may move to increase drilling permit fees to make domestic energy production more expensive — and, in turn, raise the price of home heating oil and gasoline to Americans. Furthermore, Democratic leaders may be poised to slow the permitting process to allow for the development of energy resources on federal lands, increasing burdensome red tape.
Established in the 1920s, the Roan Plateau would provide enough natural gas to heat four million homes for 20 years. A recent Denver Post editorial applauded the House for stripping language from Democrats’ energy bill that would have banned development of the Roan Plateau, but Democratic leaders may seek to add that language into the omnibus spending bill.
Democrats may include harmful policy language in the omnibus spending bill that would breach the 1998-1999 Clinton oil and gas leases. The Bush Administration has estimated that leasing delays from resulting litigation will cost the federal government $11 billion and 1.6 barrels of oil — all at a time when oil prices are reaching record levels.
Democrats may attempt to insert the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act (H.R. 980) — legislation that would force all state and local governments to collectively bargain with police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel — circumventing a legislative process that is well underway. At the behest of Big Labor, the legislation severely restricts the freedom of state and local governments to craft employment policies for public safety officers.
Tucked in the omnibus spending bill could be an effort to narrow the Department of Labor’s jurisdiction over labor racketeering and organized criminal enterprises, limiting responsibility exclusively to the Inspector General while excluding the rest of the Department.
The Democrats’ spending bill could limit funding to implement the Internal Revenue Service’s use of private collection firms to collect unpaid taxes. The private debt collection initiative is expected to collect $1.3 billion in taxes owed to the government that would otherwise go uncollected.
The Heritage Foundation’s team of fiscal watchdogs has volunteered to help educate members of Congress and the White House about the tricks, gimmicks and earmarks stuffed into the mammoth omnibus spending bill.
Search the Omnibus
We've made the omnibus searchable. Type in a word and see if you can find anything interesting. Or if you'd rather read it one section at a time, we've made it available in HTML.
Pork spending must be as American as apple pie, the way members of Congress pack the federal budget with pet projects for their home districts. It's easy to take your pick of cultural curiosities with an "Americana" theme to plan a Pork Vacation Tour for the New Year. After all, Congress slipped in more than 11,300 budget-busting "earmarks" before Christmas. Here are just a few "destination" pork stops sure to delight any red-blooded American taxpayer.
To some in Washington, $20 billion over budget may not sound like much. House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wisc.) shrugged it off as “table scraps.” But $20 billion is real money to taxpayers. To reach that amount would take every federal income tax dollar paid in 2005 by residents of North Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, Alaska, Delaware and Maine combined.
Want to ward off the post-Christmas blues? Pile the family into the minivan for a Pork Vacation Tour spotlighting critters that eat into your household budget. Watch a bevy of bugs and beasts -- from beetles to beavers and crickets to rats -- gobble up your tax dollars. Members of Congress stuffed more than 11,300 budget-busting "earmarks" into the omnibus spending bill to commit billions to such pet projects. Now they're happy for you to write the check.
A little strapped for cash this Christmas? Here's an idea: Congress is spending your money like crazy, so why not take the family to see stuff you've already paid for? This holiday season, plan your own Pork Vacation Tour. Visit just a few of the 11,300 exciting pork-barrel projects tucked away in the House and Senate spending bills. Explain to the kids that -- no matter where you live -- you paid for it.
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