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Congressional Democratic leaders, bristling from President Bush’s criticism of earmarks in his State of the Union address, made no promises Tuesday to slash pet projects in half in this year’s spending bills. At a Tuesday morning breakfast briefing with reporters, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) complained that Bush had failed to acknowledge the enactment of last year’s ethics law that made earmark requests more transparent. Also, they insisted that they were making significant progress in reducing the number of earmarks. “Where was this fervor and determination when Republicans were in charge of the appropriations process?” Durbin said.Durbin acknowledged that it is “almost inevitable” that embarrassing earmarks will emerge occasionally, but he said that steps are already being taken to shine more light on pet projects. “I think his feelings about more transparency and dDisclosure ... move in the same direction we’ve already started,”
Durbin, an Appropriations Committee member, said at the briefing sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. The immediate reaction from Democratic leaders — as well as a number of Republicans — signaled that another protracted battle may loom over domestic spending between Congress and the White House in the final days of Bush’s term. At Monday night’s State of the Union address, Bush said he would direct federal agencies to ignore spending money on earmarks that are not explicitly written into legislative text and promised a veto of any bill that does not slash the pet projects in half from the previous year’s levels. The call won support from fiscal hawks sharply critical of lawmakers’ pet projects, who pointed to a number of high-profile federal corruption cases revolving around earmarks. Durbin – who separately acknowledged that the presidential election “overshadows everything that we do” – also
said lawmakers are eager to flaunt pet projects. The projects take on extra importance during an election year for some lawmakers eager to show their effectiveness in Congress. “I can’t wait to tell [the press] about my earmarks, because I really think they’re important to my state and are things
that I’m proud of,” Durbin said.
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