Bush wants earmarks cut in half for fiscal 2008
The use of earmarks has grown significantly during the past decade.
President Bush on Wednesday said Congress must reduce its use of earmarks, proposing that lawmakers cut by at least half "the number and cost" of earmarks in the fiscal 2008 appropriations bills.
Renewing an effort he had pursued only half-heartedly since early in his administration when his calls to reel in earmarks failed to gain traction with the GOP-controlled Congress, Bush said the reductions must be accompanied by a thorough reform of the earmarking process.
"Congress needs to adopt real reform that requires full disclosure of the sponsors, the costs, the recipients, and the justifications for every earmark," Bush said. "Congress needs to stop the practice of concealing earmarks in so-called report language."
The president, who spoke following a meeting with his Cabinet, also announced that his fiscal 2008 budget, to be submitted Feb. 5, will be a "five-year budget proposal" that will balance the federal budget by 2012.
"It will address the most urgent needs of our nation, in particular the need to protect ourselves from radicals and terrorists; the need to win the war on terror; the need to maintain a strong national defense; and the need to keep this economy growing by making tax relief permanent," Bush said.
Incoming House Budget Chairman John Spratt, D-S.C., on Wednesday issued a statement welcoming Bush's "newfound commitment to a balanced budget" but questioning how -- with obligations such as the need to pay for the war in Iraq and to reduce the alternative minimum tax -- Bush planned to do it.
The use of earmarks has grown significantly during the past decade, when Republicans ran the House and -- for much of that time -- the Senate as well. Now that Democrats are in power, they have vowed to take steps to limit the practice, and Republicans have been supportive.
The incoming Democratic chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations committees previously announced that no earmarks would be included in the unfinished fiscal 2006 spending bills.
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said Bush has ratcheted up his effort to combat earmarks partly in response to determination evident on both sides of the aisle to limit the practice. Snow did not rule out Bush vetoing appropriations bills over the use of earmarks, but he said the issue may be moot if efforts to limit their use are successful.
Snow also sought to distinguish between "good earmarks" and bad ones, saying that some may be "in our national interest" and generally supported by lawmakers, while unacceptable earmarks do not serve the national interest and may be inserted for political reasons.
Bush on Wednesday also published an unusual opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal in which he called for bipartisanship, listed well-known agenda items such as his desire for a line-item veto and entitlement reform, and warned Congress against raising taxes.
Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office on Wednesday declined to respond to Bush's calls for line-item veto power and a significant reduction in earmarks. Reid's spokesman said Democrats would push for greater transparency of earmarks next week during debate on a measure overhauling ethics and lobbying rules.
"It is encouraging that President Bush is making a commitment to bipartisanship in the final years of his presidency," he said. Meanwhile, incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said under the Democratic rule changes lawmakers would still be allowed to place earmarks in bills but that the purpose would have to be made clear and the sponsor identified, rules that will be applied to all committees and would be defined in the rule for each bill.
"They [earmarks] will be reduced, not completely eliminated," said Hoyer, adding that to completely eliminate earmarks would be to skew power too greatly to the executive branch from the Congress.
Greta Wodele contributed to this report.