Da’ end of Demint’s Patience?– Updated with Video

Back in January pressure from blogs finally drove congress to do something about earmark reform. Despite all the bleating from some quarters, as expected it was the Republicans who were most responsible for pushing through the Demint amendment, the Democrats dragged their feet before capitulating in the face of blogosphere wide pressure.

Now we find out that the Democrats refuse to implement it. So DeMint has sent a letter to the Senate leaders Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell (pdf.) announcing he will seek “unanimous consent to enact” the rule which is being blocked.

S. Res. 123 requires disclosure of several types of information related to earmarks contained in committee-passed bills, which must be made available in a searchable format on the Internet. This includes the name of the senator requesting the earmark, the name and address of the intended recipient of the earmark, the purpose of the earmark, and a certification that the requesting senator and his or her spouse have no financial interest in the requested earmark. This is simple information that every senator should be willing to provide the public.

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For example, the Fiscal Year 2008 earmark solicitation form circulated by the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development did not require the disclosure of the name or address of the intended earmark recipient, nor did it require certification that the requesting senator has no financial interest in the earmark. The earmark solicitation forms circulated by the Appropriations Subcommittees on Interior
and Agriculture also failed to require the disclosure of these items, and the only requirement of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education was that earmark requests be submitted on time. These events clearly demonstrate that it’s time for the Senate to stop dragging its feet on this critical issue.

Let me be clear, it isn’t Senator McConnell’s office which is the problem here. I got this letter from Senator McConnell’s office. I have covered this issue and who is really dragging their feet on reform here and here. More links in those posts if you want to really dig into it.

Of course, as covered earlier, with people such as Representative David Obey in charge:

Now this is jaw-dropping. Congressman Jeff Flake is contending, as the following video will show, that the House is violating its own rules on earmarks. As an example, Flake points to one earmark in the war supplemental bill that is designated for NASA. Because it wasn’t reported in the bill correctly, Flake was seeking clarification. In response, Congressman David Obey said:

“The fact is, that an earmark is something that is requested by an individual member. This item was not requested by any individual member. It was put in the bill by ME!”

Either Obey believes he is above the law when it comes to enforcing House rules, or he doesn’t believe he is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Which is it?

You can see the problem we are confronting. Click through for more and video of his complaint.

If the blogosphere was serious about reform, then it is time to hold our lawmakers feet to the fire.

Update: Brad Warbiany is on this as well. Red Generation has a bunch more on this including a huge collection of links from the media.

Here is Senator Demint on the Senate floor:

[youtube 5Hl4mFNdf6k]

Tags: Democrats, government, politics, pork, earmarks, Demint, Senate