Jack Kingston

Washington, DC, Feb 6 -

Boehner and Blunt: House GOP Will Force Vote TOMORROW on Immediate Earmark Moratorium
Leaders Say GOP Will Force House to Confront Earmark Issue as Bill Containing Higher Education Slush Fund Hits Floor

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Disappointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) rejection of House Republican calls for an immediate moratorium on all taxpayer-funded earmarks, House Republicans will force a vote on the issue tomorrow, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO) announced this afternoon.  The leaders said House Republicans will force the earmark reform vote as a higher education authorization bill comes to the floor containing what many argue is a taxpayer-funded slush fund for colleges and universities.

“House Republicans regret Speaker Pelosi’s decision to keep the earmark factory open.  Middle-class families are fed up with Washington politicians squandering their hard-earned money, particularly at a time when families are struggling with the rising cost of living.  We need to bring fundamental change to the way Washington spends the American people’s money, but this change cannot begin until the earmarks stop.  Republicans hope rank-and-file Democrats will honor the promises they made in 2006, and join us in voting to halt the broken earmark process so it can be reformed,” Boehner said.

“It’s become evident to the American people, as well as a good many of us in Congress, that the system Congress uses to dole out earmarks is badly broken and in need of thorough, fundamental reform.  Unfortunately, it’s also evident that Democrats in Congress have demonstrated neither the will nor the appetite to work with Republicans in bringing about that change voluntarily.  So it’s incumbent upon us to use every opportunity available to speak up for the millions of Americans who have had enough,” said Blunt.

The House is scheduled to vote Thursday on legislation that would reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA), including part of the law known as the Fund for Improving Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE), which many reform advocates argue is a taxpayer-funded slush fund for higher education earmarks.

Three GOP members of the House Appropriations Committee — Reps. Jack Kingston of Georgia, Frank Wolf of Virginia and Zack Wamp of Tennessee — have authored legislation that would bring the earmark process to a halt and establish a panel to identify ways to permanently change the spending process.  Kingston-Wolf-Wamp has been cosponsored by 129 House Republicans, including the entire House Republican leadership team.  However, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who as leader of the Democrat-controlled House has the power to shut down the chamber’s earmarking process immediately, declined to support the measure or the proposed moratorium.

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Related resources:

1.25.08 - KINGSTON EARMARK REFORM PACKAGE ADOPTED AS STANDARD

11.16.07-COALITION LED BY KINGSTON, WOLF AND WAMP INTRODUCES EARMARK REFORM LEGISLATION