HOUSE Republican Leader John Boehner

Washington, Jun 14, 2007 -

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) declared victory today as Democrats were forced to surrender to GOP demands to bring greater transparency and accountability to the earmark rules governing the appropriations process.  Boehner issued the following statement:

“Democratic leaders finally surrendered to our demands because supporting secret earmarks in appropriations bills is indefensible and the American people won’t stand for it.  House Republicans worked together to demand an end to slush funds for secret earmarks and the right to challenge wasteful spending on the House floor – and we won.

“This is an important victory for American families who deserve to know how and where Congress is spending their hard-earned tax dollars – and for House Republicans who stood united to make it happen.  This was a team effort – plain and simple.  Everyone from Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) and the Republican Study Committee to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and his Budget Committee team; from Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) and his Appropriations Committee team to our leadership and everyone in between – we won this by sticking together.  And we will continue to fight in the coming weeks to ensure these concessions are applied to authorization and tax bills as well. 

“This victory does not put an end of our efforts to ensure America’s taxpayer dollars are spent wisely.  The appropriations bills put forth by House Democrats still spend too much money, billions more than requested by President Bush.  Republicans will work very closely with the White House and sustain vetoes by the President of any Democratic bill that contains wasteful and excessive spending.”

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TERMS OF DEMOCRATS’ SURRENDER ON SLUSH FUNDS FOR SECRET EARMARKS

A tentative agreement has been reached between Republican and Democratic leaders – an agreement that represents a victory for House Republicans.  The terms of the agreement are as follows:

• Democrats will abandon their plans to pass appropriations bills with slush funds for secret earmarks.  The plan announced last month by Chairman Obey to keep all earmarks secret until “air-dropping” them into conference reports will be dropped, effective immediately.  Two appropriations bills (Homeland Security, Military Quality) that include little or no earmarks will move forward.  Following consideration of these two bills, all 10 remaining appropriations bills will come to the floor with their earmarks fully disclosed and subject to challenge by any Member.  In the unique case of the Energy & Water bill, the earmarks will move to the floor in a package separate from the non-earmark portion of the bill, but (again) the earmarks will be fully disclosed and subject to challenge by any Member.  In short: the Democrats’ slush funds for secret earmarks are dead.

• Democrats will restore the 2006 House Republican earmark reforms for appropriations bills.  This rules change will go into effect immediately after the House completes action on the Homeland Security and Military Quality appropriations bills, which include little or no earmarks.  This aspect of the agreement will restore a key element of the 2006 GOP reforms repealed by the Democratic leadership in 2007. 

The agreement does NOT include specific time limits on debate for any appropriations bills.  Democrats earlier today demanded that Republicans accept unprecedented time limits that would arbitrarily minimize debate on spending bills involving hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer funds.  House Republican leaders refused this demand.  Instead, we indicated to Democratic leaders that if the earmark reforms outlined above are complied with both letter and spirit, and adequate time is provided to debate substantive issues, Republicans do not anticipate that we will need to engage in extraordinary parliamentary tactics that will again bring the appropriations process to a halt.