Obey Extends Deadline For Members' Earmark Requests
By Peter Cohn, with Christian Bourge contributing
March 21, 2007
House Appropriations Chairman Obey has extended the deadline for submitting earmark requests to April 27, citing concerns that Appropriations ranking member Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., and others have cited about confusion stemming from new House ethics rules. Lewis wrote to Obey last Thursday requesting an extension of the deadline, which was set for March 16, as in previous years. "I have been very reluctant to extend the submission deadline for earmark requests because it complicates our ability to draft and consider bills in a timely fashion," Obey replied Tuesday in a letter to Lewis. "However, in light of the questions that you and others have raised, I have decided to extend the deadline to April 27. We will have to deal with the difficulties that this creates for producing bills down the line, but I hope you find this responsive to your request."
Obey had wanted to begin markups in early May in order to complete all 12 spending bills before the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30. It was unclear how far the schedule would be pushed back so members can have more time to submit earmark requests. Obey has pledged to cut earmarks in half this year, which could lessen the amount of staff work, although a separate "Dear Colleague" from Obey said that subcommittee limitations on the number of requests per member would be removed.
The situation was created when the House earlier this year adopted earmark disclosure rules as one of the first orders of business for the Democratic majority. The rule requires members requesting earmarks to certify their intended recipients and purpose and state that they and their families have no financial interest in the project -- a provision that has sparked particular concern. According to Obey's letter to House members, the Ethics Committee produced guidelines on the matter Tuesday, though they have not been available and many staffers say they have not seen them. "I expect that even after these guidelines are reviewed, members will have additional questions that need to be addressed," he wrote. He added that members will still have to enter their earmark requests into the committee's database, whether it is an individual or group request, but requests for programmatic increases, such as a request to boost funding for Amtrak, will not require disclosure.
A spokesman for Minority Leader Boehner said that Rules ranking member David Dreier, R-Calif., predicted this situation in January, saying Democrats rushed to turn their campaign issues into ethics rules without thinking about application or enforcement, or soliciting advice from the Ethics Committee or the minority. "Obviously, it's not easy to implement rules that are fatally flawed in design, which explains the Democrats' inability to issue guidance for the last two months," the spokesman said.
