Appropriations Earmarks

Dr. Cassidy is not requesting Appropriations earmarks until the process is reformed to provide greater transparency and accountability.

To strengthen transparency and accountability in the earmarking process, on May 11, 2010, Dr. Cassidy introduced the Earmark Transparency Act of 2010 (H.R. 5258), a bipartisan earmark reform bill with Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA) to give taxpayers, Congressional watchdog groups, and the press easy access to the information they need to hold Congress accountable.

The Cassidy-Speier bill would have amended House Rules to:

• Require Members to disclose their earmark requests on their websites and include a homepage link to their disclosures using the word “earmark;”
• Require that Members maintain the disclosure link on their homepages for at least 30 days and requiring that disclosure pages remain online for the remainder of the Congressional Session;
• Require any Committee accepting earmark requests to maintain a searchable online database of Members’ earmark requests;
• Prohibit consideration of legislation containing earmarks that does not satisfy the above requirements. 

According to Sunlight Foundation Policy Director John Wonderlich, “If enacted, the Cassidy-Speier bill will create effective, online disclosure of earmarks in real time, with substantive detail.  This bill brings this element of Congressional activity into the 21st Century, where transparency requires all public information to be posted online. This simple requirement will help to establish more trust and accountability between citizen and lawmakers.”

“We applaud Representatives Cassidy and Speier for taking the transparency bull by the horns and proposing to change the House rules to make earmark requests more transparent and accountable,” said Ms. Ryan Alexander, President of Taxpayers for Common Sense. “This common sense rule change is the logical next step to ensure taxpayers across the country can see where their lawmakers want to spend tax dollars.