Website Header
Issues - Earmark Reform

Earmark Reform

LATEST NEWS:

  • November 20,2008:  House Republican leaders propose an earmark moratorium as first step to reforming the earmark process.
  • March 3, 2008: Earmark lobbyists complain about time spent answering lawmakers’ questions about clients’ pork requests; Threaten a “drop in their contributions” to politicians as a result of new earmark restrictions. Read the article here.
  • February 20,2008: Survey paints bleak picture of public trust in government.
  • January 28, 2008: "12-Step Earmark Withdrawal"- read the Wall Street Journal's editorial on Mr. Bush's 2008 executive order on earmarks.
  • September 12, 2007: Dr. Coburn Requests Oversight Report on Transportation Earmarks - Report criticizes Congress’ wasteful spending. Read all about it here.
  • July 19, 2007: Senator Coburn Asks Pentagon for Review of Each and Every Defense Earmark. Read the letter here.
  • June 15, 2007: "House grinds to a halt in rift over earmarks"
  • June 14, 2007: Read Dr. Coburn's Wall Street Journal column, "Earmarxists"
  • May 20, 2007: Sen. Coburn, DeMint Say WRDA Bill Violates Congress’ Commitment to Reform Pork Process
  • April 19, 2007: Stealthy Congress is Keeping Its Bridge to Earmarks; read all about it here.
  • April 12, 2007: Senate Fiscal Hawks To Force Vote on Earmark Disclosure. Dr. Coburn joined Senators DeMint, Chambliss, Cornyn and Enzi in sending a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell indicating their intention to seek enactment of the Senate's new earmark disclosure requirements.
  • April 4, 2007: Earmarks Database is Now Live. The Office of Management and Budget today released the much anticipated earmark database; click here to visit the earmark database.
  • March 2007: House and Senate pass Emergency War Supplemental Bills loaded with tens of billions of dollars in unrelated pork; President Bush promises veto. Catch up on the latest news on this issue by scrolling through the news links listed below. For highlights, read: “'Peanuts' for Petraeus - Everybody's a General in the Army called Congress” (Wall Street Journal editorial, March 17, 2007); Dr. Coburn addresses the U.S. Senate on the Emergency War Supplemental Spending Bill (Mar 26, 2007); and “Pork Goes to War” (Thomas Schatz, New York Times, March 30, 2007).
  • March 2007: The Congressional Research Services refuses to report on the number of earmarks in FY08 spending bills. Read "Earmark Cover-Up The Congressional Research Service is helping its masters hide wasteful spending" (John Fund, Wall Street Journal, March 26, 2007).
  • March 2007: Democrats in disarray; failing to enforce promised ethics guidelines and transparency for earmarks. Catch up on the latest news on this issue by scrolling through the news links listed below.  For highlights, read: “Opinion: Democrats practice deviance with earmarks – Will Bush act?” (Robert Novak, Chicago Sun-Times, March 19, 2007); “(Some) Earmarks Open to Scrutiny” (Paul Singer, Roll Call, March 13, 2007); "Earmark Requests Pulled" (Paul Singer, Roll Call, March 14, 2007).
  • March 2007: Senate already breaking earmark moratorium, gears up for 2008 requests, Dr. Coburn writes Chairman Byrd to express concern, March 12, 2007.
  • December 15, 2006: Read Dr. Coburn’s column, “Earmark ban shows Congress can change.”
  • December 12, 2006: 109th Congress ends pork free; year-long CR expected with no earmarks through October 2007. Dr. Coburn has taken a “trust but verify” approach to a recent pledge by Democratic leadership and incoming chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, Obey and Byrd, who drafted a budget plan cutting earmarks through the end of the current federal government fiscal year, pending probable earmark reform measures. Boarding up the earmark favor factory for at least a year is an early Christmas gift to taxpayers – a year-long continuing resolution and earmark moratorium will save billions. In the span of 14 months the Senate went from defending the Bridge to Nowhere by a vote of 82 to 15 to an earmark moratorium. More in the press here: Democrats Freeze Earmarks for Now (The Washington Post); Dems Plan Joint Resolution, No Earmarks (The Hill). 
  • April 15, 2006: Dr. Coburn Launches an Earmark Toolkit Media resources, statistics, graphics and other information for battling pork. "Earmarks" have been in the news a lot lately, but most Americans are not familiar with this inside-the-Beltway phenomenon. And for good reason. If more taxpayers were armed with a full understanding of the shady, undemocratic practice of earmarking, they might just demand an end to it on the spot. Dr. Coburn hopes that's the case and has established this site to empower voters to demand reforms that will place the future quality of life for the next generation above concerns about the next election. This site contains an introduction to earmarks, links to Dr. Coburn's earmark-related hearings, media stories on earmarks, reports by Congressional Research Service and others, oversight letters, legislative and floor action such as bills and amendments, and press releases. Click HERE to read an introduction to EARMARKS: THE MECHANICS OF PORK.

This page will be updated frequently. Browse the long list of the most recent related news articles, press releases and examples of "government waste" on this topic below.

 

 

 

 

 



Related Resources:

Hearings:


Press Releases:


Oversight Actions:


Examples of Government Waste:


News:



Senator Tom Coburn

Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security

340 Dirksen Senate Office Building     Washington, DC 20510

Phone: 202-224-2254     Fax: 202-228-3796

Email Alerts Signup!


Oversight Action button
Investigative Reports button
Your Tax Dollars at Work button
Submit a tip button
Legislative and Floor Action button




Pork Busters button
About RSS and Podcasting | Best Viewed | FAQs | Plug-Ins | Privacy Policy | Site Map

Home | Text Only | XML RSS 2.0 feed RSS Feed