Pelosi promises to identify pork - The Orange Mane

Crushaholic · 11-13-2006, 06:06 PM

If this actually happens, it will be FANTASTIC. I mean that...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washing...sponsors_x.htm

Democrats aim to open the next Congress in January with a new rule that identifies lawmakers who use legislative "earmarks" to help special interests — a change Republicans promised but didn't implement.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said her first agenda item after being elected House speaker will be a vote to require sponsors of earmarks to be identified. Currently, lawmakers can remain anonymous in sponsoring an earmark, which is language in a bill that directs funds or tax benefits to a business, project or institution.

"There has to be transparency," the California congresswoman told USA TODAY last week. "I'd just as soon do away with all (earmarks), but that probably isn't realistic."

Pelosi said some earmarks "are worthy," and they can be a legitimate way for Congress to force fiscal priorities on the White House.

House Republican leaders adopted a disclosure rule in September, but no earmark sponsors have been identified under the rule because it effectively exempted bills that dictate spending for 2007.

Congress begins a lame-duck session today to consider unfinished 2007 appropriations bills. Those bills could give members another chance to insert anonymous earmarks. Regardless, the Republican rule expires at year's end, so Democrats would have to pass their own disclosure requirement.

Earmarking has drawn complaints from groups such as the National Taxpayers Union that say anonymity encourages wasteful spending. Conservative groups and some GOP lawmakers, such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., have said Republicans' failure to bring accountability to the process helped fuel the party's losses last week.

David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, cited earmark disclosure as one of several "needed reforms" that Republicans should back in the new Congress. "We hope that the party in which most of us have invested our trust will learn the right lessons" from the elections, he said.

elsid13 · 11-13-2006, 06:24 PM

Yeah so what?, is anyone going to pay attention? or will 98% of the American population even know what they are looking at?

Crushaholic · 11-13-2006, 07:17 PM

Identifying members of Congress from both sides of the aisle who are big on pork projects is IDEALLY the right thing to do to start getting our fiscal house in order. It may not happen once Democrats start complaining that they would be singled out as a big spender, but it SHOULD happen.

elsid13 · 11-13-2006, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crushaholic

Identifying members of Congress from both sides of the aisle who are big on pork projects is IDEALLY the right thing to do to start getting our fiscal house in order. It may not happen once Democrats start complaining that they would be singled out as a big spender, but it SHOULD happen.

Do really believe anything going to change, One person's pork is someone else critical project to success of the county,state, nation.

Crushaholic · 11-14-2006, 03:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elsid13

Do really believe anything going to change, One person's pork is someone else critical project to success of the county,state, nation.

I'm just trying to be as optimistic as I can about the next Congress...

Traveler · 11-14-2006, 10:00 AM

IMO, the first bill they pass should be one that requires all members of congress the read the bill in entirety before a vote can be taken. Too many times these past years, I've heard members say they voted on a bill they hadn't read.

Garcia Bronco · 11-14-2006, 10:34 AM

they should also vote themselves a pay cut

spdirty · 11-14-2006, 10:37 AM

Well, she needs to identify this and start here.

Speaker-to-be is no stranger to earmarking

Rep. Nancy Pelosi has promised to change the controversial practice, a process she's celebrated using for her district.
By Noam N. Levey and Richard Simon, Times Staff Writers
November 13, 2006

Mark my words

click to enlarge

WASHINGTON — When the House passed a massive spending bill last November, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi made sure her constituents knew what they were getting.

"Pelosi Secures $115 Million for San Francisco Transportation, Housing, Science and Arts," she proclaimed in a news release.

It wasn't an unusual announcement. Like many of her colleagues in Congress, Pelosi for years has celebrated bringing home the bacon to her district.

But now — as Pelosi prepares to take over the House after an election in which scandal helped drive Republicans from power — she is promising changes to the controversial practice of earmarking.

Earmarks are spending provisions dropped into bills — often anonymously, at the last minute and without public scrutiny. They were at the center of several high-profile scandals that undermined the GOP this year, when earmarks benefited special interests.

Pelosi has not been linked to any impropriety. And not all the federal funding Pelosi boasts about came from earmarks. But the presumed new House speaker has proved a champion practitioner of the earmarking process over the years.

During the last congressional session, her district received far more earmarks than a typical district, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog that tracks congressional spending.

Pelosi has helped direct tens of millions of dollars to subway and bridge projects in San Francisco. She has secured money to restore a historic schooner and convert the old San Francisco Mint into a history museum.

Citizens Against Government Waste, a critic of such "pork-barrel" spending, has calculated that Pelosi's district received nearly $31.3 million through earmarks in the last two fiscal years.

Among the biggest earmarks identified by the group were $5.6 million for the UC San Francisco neurology department and $4 million for Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. Both were inserted into the 2006 defense spending bill.

Three years ago, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Pelosi had secured $1 million for the University of San Francisco's Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good, which was started by her longtime advisor and campaign treasurer.

At the time, the 10-term congresswoman from California's 8th District said the center had received the funding on its merits.

Pelosi has defended her earmarking, including at a news conference in March. "There are many earmarks that are very worthy," she said. "All of mine, as a matter of fact."

And she has reaped the rewards. San Francisco's largest newspaper has extensively covered the millions of dollars in federal money she has helped bring home.

Pelosi says there is a distinction between earmarks for public projects, which she defends and are typically publicized, and those she calls "special-interest earmarks."

"It is the special-interest earmarks that are the ones that go in there in the dark of night that they don't want anybody to see, and that nobody does see, and that are voted upon," she said in March.

Special-interest projects, which helped fuel several recent congressional scandals, are often anonymously slipped into spending bills by lawmakers at lobbyists' behest.

Pelosi's approach to the issue is certain to come under renewed scrutiny. In one of her first acts as speaker, she has pledged to crack down on earmarking.

"I would just as soon do away with all of them," she told reporters this week.

This year, Pelosi was among those who assailed Republicans' use of the practice.

And when the House adopted a rule in September requiring authors of some, but not all, earmarks to be identified, she called it a "political gimmick to make it look as if something is happening."

The current Democratic proposal would not prohibit earmarks, but it would expand the requirement to identify earmarkers.

"It won't take long for the American public to realize that Nancy Pelosi and company were all talk and no action on earmark reform," said Kevin Madden, a spokesman for House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio).

"Pelosi has been one of the biggest proponents and beneficiaries of pork spending."

Pelosi spokeswoman Jennifer Crider dismissed the criticism, promising that under Pelosi's leadership earmarks would not be abused as she said they were under the Republicans.

But budget watchdogs, who decried the GOP majority's use of earmarking over the last 12 years, are watching warily.

When a group of them sent Pelosi a letter last week noting that they were encouraged by her "stated support for real earmark reform," they closed with a warning: "We hope you and your colleagues will show the same dedication to enacting these reforms in the majority as you did to promoting them in the minority."
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/po...r-politics-cal

Garcia Bronco · 11-14-2006, 10:42 AM

"Pelosi has not been linked to any impropriety. And not all the federal funding Pelosi boasts about came from earmarks."

This is really the most important part...earmarks aren't bad...abusing them for bridges to nowhere are.

alkemical · 11-14-2006, 10:42 AM

why should i believe any one of these crooks?

Burn them all.

Billy Clyde Puckett · 11-14-2006, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Traveler

IMO, the first bill they pass should be one that requires all members of congress the read the bill in entirety before a vote can be taken. Too many times these past years, I've heard members say they voted on a bill they hadn't read.

Legend has it that Sonny Bono stood up in congress with a 1500 page bill and said "Has anyone really read this whole thing and understands it" (or somethhing to that effect.)

A friend feels the greatest improvement we could make in our government would be to limit each new bill to a single page printed in common english. That way congress wouldn't be able to hide things in bills and thier intent would be obvious.

W*GS · 11-14-2006, 11:04 AM

Pork is the result of voters demanding that their Congresscritter bring home the federal goodies.

If we want pork to end, quit asking your Congresscritter for other taxpayers' dollars.

spdirty · 11-14-2006, 11:43 AM

Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2006 11:24 a.m. EST
Sen. Reid Backed Bridge Near His Property

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., backed funding for a bridge between Nevada and Arizona that could affect the value of property he owns nearby.

The planned span over the Colorado River between Laughlin, Nev., and Bullhead City, Ariz., got an $18 million boost in last year's massive federal transportation bill.

Reid, who's in line to become Senate majority leader after last week's election, owns 160 acres of undeveloped property in Bullhead City, several miles from the proposed bridge sites. Development is booming in the area and local officials in Laughlin and Bullhead City support a new crossing to ease traffic on the one existing bridge. They also expect it would add to property values.

Reid aides said his support for the bridge has nothing to do with his ownership of the Bullhead City property, which he values between $500,000 and $1 million on his annual financial disclosure forms. His spokesman said he had no plans to develop the property.

After the Los Angeles Times published a story on the issue Monday, Reid's office issued a five-page fact sheet in response.

Story Continues Below

According to the statement, Laughlin officials began pushing for another bridge after the nearby Hoover dam crossing was closed because of security concerns after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, pushing traffic onto a single Laughlin-Bullhead City bridge.

Reid and others in the Nevada delegation responded, securing $500,000 for planning in 2004. Reid and Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., then pushed for the $18 million in last year's $286 billion highway-mass transit bill.

A final location has not been designated for the bridge, which is projected to cost $30 million to $40 million.

"Sen. Reid's support for the bridge had absolutely nothing to do with property he owned," said the statement from his office. "Sen. Reid supported this project for one reason only - his continuing efforts to move Nevada forward."
Reid and other incoming Democratic leaders have promised to bring more openness to the practice of earmarking, where lawmakers insert funding for pet projects into legislation with little scrutiny.

http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/...722.shtml?s=ic

11-13-2006, 06:06 PM	#1
Crushaholic Armchair Poster Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Topeka, KS Posts: 22,044	Pelosi promises to identify pork If this actually happens, it will be FANTASTIC. I mean that... http://www.usatoday.com/news/washing...sponsors_x.htm Democrats aim to open the next Congress in January with a new rule that identifies lawmakers who use legislative "earmarks" to help special interests — a change Republicans promised but didn't implement. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said her first agenda item after being elected House speaker will be a vote to require sponsors of earmarks to be identified. Currently, lawmakers can remain anonymous in sponsoring an earmark, which is language in a bill that directs funds or tax benefits to a business, project or institution. "There has to be transparency," the California congresswoman told USA TODAY last week. "I'd just as soon do away with all (earmarks), but that probably isn't realistic." Pelosi said some earmarks "are worthy," and they can be a legitimate way for Congress to force fiscal priorities on the White House. House Republican leaders adopted a disclosure rule in September, but no earmark sponsors have been identified under the rule because it effectively exempted bills that dictate spending for 2007. Congress begins a lame-duck session today to consider unfinished 2007 appropriations bills. Those bills could give members another chance to insert anonymous earmarks. Regardless, the Republican rule expires at year's end, so Democrats would have to pass their own disclosure requirement. Earmarking has drawn complaints from groups such as the National Taxpayers Union that say anonymity encourages wasteful spending. Conservative groups and some GOP lawmakers, such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., have said Republicans' failure to bring accountability to the process helped fuel the party's losses last week. David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, cited earmark disclosure as one of several "needed reforms" that Republicans should back in the new Congress. "We hope that the party in which most of us have invested our trust will learn the right lessons" from the elections, he said.

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11-13-2006, 06:24 PM	#2
elsid13 Lost In Space Bóg, Honor, Ojczyzna Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: DC Posts: 19,087	Yeah so what?, is anyone going to pay attention? or will 98% of the American population even know what they are looking at?

11-13-2006, 07:17 PM	#3
Crushaholic Armchair Poster Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Topeka, KS Posts: 22,044	Identifying members of Congress from both sides of the aisle who are big on pork projects is IDEALLY the right thing to do to start getting our fiscal house in order. It may not happen once Democrats start complaining that they would be singled out as a big spender, but it SHOULD happen.

11-14-2006, 10:00 AM	#6
Traveler Traveling Man! Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Atlanta, GA Posts: 4,411 Adopt-a-Bronco: Ryan Clady	IMO, the first bill they pass should be one that requires all members of congress the read the bill in entirety before a vote can be taken. Too many times these past years, I've heard members say they voted on a bill they hadn't read.

11-14-2006, 10:34 AM	#7
Garcia Bronco Hokie since 1993 Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Denver, CO Posts: 45,991 Adopt-a-Bronco: Tom Jackson	they should also vote themselves a pay cut

11-14-2006, 10:37 AM	#8
spdirty Ring of Famer Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Bailey Posts: 13,903 Adopt-a-Bronco: Koppen	Well, she needs to identify this and start here. Speaker-to-be is no stranger to earmarking Rep. Nancy Pelosi has promised to change the controversial practice, a process she's celebrated using for her district. By Noam N. Levey and Richard Simon, Times Staff Writers November 13, 2006 Mark my words click to enlarge WASHINGTON — When the House passed a massive spending bill last November, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi made sure her constituents knew what they were getting. "Pelosi Secures $115 Million for San Francisco Transportation, Housing, Science and Arts," she proclaimed in a news release. It wasn't an unusual announcement. Like many of her colleagues in Congress, Pelosi for years has celebrated bringing home the bacon to her district. But now — as Pelosi prepares to take over the House after an election in which scandal helped drive Republicans from power — she is promising changes to the controversial practice of earmarking. Earmarks are spending provisions dropped into bills — often anonymously, at the last minute and without public scrutiny. They were at the center of several high-profile scandals that undermined the GOP this year, when earmarks benefited special interests. Pelosi has not been linked to any impropriety. And not all the federal funding Pelosi boasts about came from earmarks. But the presumed new House speaker has proved a champion practitioner of the earmarking process over the years. During the last congressional session, her district received far more earmarks than a typical district, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog that tracks congressional spending. Pelosi has helped direct tens of millions of dollars to subway and bridge projects in San Francisco. She has secured money to restore a historic schooner and convert the old San Francisco Mint into a history museum. Citizens Against Government Waste, a critic of such "pork-barrel" spending, has calculated that Pelosi's district received nearly $31.3 million through earmarks in the last two fiscal years. Among the biggest earmarks identified by the group were $5.6 million for the UC San Francisco neurology department and $4 million for Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. Both were inserted into the 2006 defense spending bill. Three years ago, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Pelosi had secured $1 million for the University of San Francisco's Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good, which was started by her longtime advisor and campaign treasurer. At the time, the 10-term congresswoman from California's 8th District said the center had received the funding on its merits. Pelosi has defended her earmarking, including at a news conference in March. "There are many earmarks that are very worthy," she said. "All of mine, as a matter of fact." And she has reaped the rewards. San Francisco's largest newspaper has extensively covered the millions of dollars in federal money she has helped bring home. Pelosi says there is a distinction between earmarks for public projects, which she defends and are typically publicized, and those she calls "special-interest earmarks." "It is the special-interest earmarks that are the ones that go in there in the dark of night that they don't want anybody to see, and that nobody does see, and that are voted upon," she said in March. Special-interest projects, which helped fuel several recent congressional scandals, are often anonymously slipped into spending bills by lawmakers at lobbyists' behest. Pelosi's approach to the issue is certain to come under renewed scrutiny. In one of her first acts as speaker, she has pledged to crack down on earmarking. "I would just as soon do away with all of them," she told reporters this week. This year, Pelosi was among those who assailed Republicans' use of the practice. And when the House adopted a rule in September requiring authors of some, but not all, earmarks to be identified, she called it a "political gimmick to make it look as if something is happening." The current Democratic proposal would not prohibit earmarks, but it would expand the requirement to identify earmarkers. "It won't take long for the American public to realize that Nancy Pelosi and company were all talk and no action on earmark reform," said Kevin Madden, a spokesman for House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). "Pelosi has been one of the biggest proponents and beneficiaries of pork spending." Pelosi spokeswoman Jennifer Crider dismissed the criticism, promising that under Pelosi's leadership earmarks would not be abused as she said they were under the Republicans. But budget watchdogs, who decried the GOP majority's use of earmarking over the last 12 years, are watching warily. When a group of them sent Pelosi a letter last week noting that they were encouraged by her "stated support for real earmark reform," they closed with a warning: "We hope you and your colleagues will show the same dedication to enacting these reforms in the majority as you did to promoting them in the minority." http://www.latimes.com/news/local/po...r-politics-cal

11-14-2006, 10:42 AM	#9
Garcia Bronco Hokie since 1993 Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Denver, CO Posts: 45,991 Adopt-a-Bronco: Tom Jackson	"Pelosi has not been linked to any impropriety. And not all the federal funding Pelosi boasts about came from earmarks." This is really the most important part...earmarks aren't bad...abusing them for bridges to nowhere are.

11-14-2006, 10:42 AM	#10
alkemical Guerrilla Ontologist rorrim\|mirror Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Future Posts: 42,696 Adopt-a-Bronco: Prima Materia	why should i believe any one of these crooks? Burn them all.

11-14-2006, 11:04 AM	#12
W*GS Ring of Famer Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Earth Posts: 19,511	Pork is the result of voters demanding that their Congresscritter bring home the federal goodies. If we want pork to end, quit asking your Congresscritter for other taxpayers' dollars.

11-14-2006, 11:43 AM	#13
spdirty Ring of Famer Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Bailey Posts: 13,903 Adopt-a-Bronco: Koppen	Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2006 11:24 a.m. EST Sen. Reid Backed Bridge Near His Property Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., backed funding for a bridge between Nevada and Arizona that could affect the value of property he owns nearby. The planned span over the Colorado River between Laughlin, Nev., and Bullhead City, Ariz., got an $18 million boost in last year's massive federal transportation bill. Reid, who's in line to become Senate majority leader after last week's election, owns 160 acres of undeveloped property in Bullhead City, several miles from the proposed bridge sites. Development is booming in the area and local officials in Laughlin and Bullhead City support a new crossing to ease traffic on the one existing bridge. They also expect it would add to property values. Reid aides said his support for the bridge has nothing to do with his ownership of the Bullhead City property, which he values between $500,000 and $1 million on his annual financial disclosure forms. His spokesman said he had no plans to develop the property. After the Los Angeles Times published a story on the issue Monday, Reid's office issued a five-page fact sheet in response. *Story Continues Below* According to the statement, Laughlin officials began pushing for another bridge after the nearby Hoover dam crossing was closed because of security concerns after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, pushing traffic onto a single Laughlin-Bullhead City bridge. Reid and others in the Nevada delegation responded, securing $500,000 for planning in 2004. Reid and Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., then pushed for the $18 million in last year's $286 billion highway-mass transit bill. A final location has not been designated for the bridge, which is projected to cost $30 million to $40 million. "Sen. Reid's support for the bridge had absolutely nothing to do with property he owned," said the statement from his office. "Sen. Reid supported this project for one reason only - his continuing efforts to move Nevada forward." Reid and other incoming Democratic leaders have promised to bring more openness to the practice of earmarking, where lawmakers insert funding for pet projects into legislation with little scrutiny. http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/...722.shtml?s=ic