WASHINGTON, DC -Today Rep. Jan
Schakowsky (D-IL), ranking member on the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and
Consumer Protection stated her support for the Honest Leadership Open Government
Act and real earmark reform:
I believe that banning all
earmarks would cut off funding to valid, important projects around the country
and in our district. However, I believe much more needs to be done to root out
earmark abuse. These provisions, often slipped into legislation at the last
minute, can carry huge price tags and are a profound misuse of the public trust.
I am a cosponsor of H.R. 4682, the Honest Leadership Open Government Act of
2006, a lobbying reform bill that includes tough earmark reform. The bill would
require detailed information about the sponsor of each earmark, require
information about the intended recipient of each earmark, disclose whether a
Member of Congress has a financial interest in an earmark, and make all this
information available to the public.
I believe that the Honest
Leadership Open Government Act would be a major step forward in curbing earmark
abuse. But I also believe that we need legislation that would keep a Member of
Congress, their family, or their family’s employer from personally benefiting
from an earmark; keep any tax measure from benefiting one individual,
corporation or entity; and prohibit the last-minute inclusion of earmarks in
conference reports.
Unfortunately, House
Resolution 1000, providing for earmarking reform in the House of
Representatives, which passed the House of Representatives, did not meaningfully
address earmark abuse. I opposed H. Res. 1000 because it only requires a list
of the sponsors of earmarks in reported bills; it does not apply to earmarks
included later in the process (like the Alaskan “Bridge to Nowhere”); and it
does not apply to targeted tariff and tax provisions that benefit specific
companies or industries.
Americans pay the price when
Members of Congress include earmarks in legislation that are not legitimate,
productive funds for their districts. As a longtime advocate for consumer
protection, I look forward to enacting real earmark reform to stop this
destructive practice. |