Dear Friends,

In a day and age where people are becoming increasingly distrustful of government, we have a responsibility to bring meaningful transparency and accountability to government. In doing so, I believe that we can increase public confidence and establish a new level of trust between government and citizens.

It is in this spirit that on September 13th I introduced House Resolution 1008, a comprehensive earmark reform proposal that would bring transparency, accountability, and public oversight to the earmarking process.

My earmark reform proposal would not only require the public disclosure of earmark sponsor and recipient names, it would also require lawmakers to justify how each funding request is relevant to their district, and would mandate that lawmakers disclose any financial interest they or the intended recipient might have in an earmark. It also includes provisions that would guarantee sufficient time for public scrutiny of earmarks before they are voted on.

Most importantly, my earmark reform proposal is comprehensive, and goes farther than other more modest proposals by requiring that information on all earmark requests be posted on publicly-accessible committee websites, and that the Clerk of the House establish a public website that provides links to committee websites with information on earmark requests.

The need to control the growth of earmarks and provide the public with easily accessible information on government spending should not be a partisan issue. This is good government, pure and simple – not a Republican or a Democratic idea, but a responsible, straightforward, common sense idea.

Very truly yours,

DENNIS MOORE
Member of Congress