House Ignoring Pledge Over Pet Projects

[brooklynite]

WASHINGTON - Just two weeks after the House passed a reform bill requiring lawmakers to attach their names to pet projects, GOP leaders are advancing spending bills containing billions of dollars in such parochial "earmarks" whose sponsors remain anonymous.

Most lawmakers, like Rep. Jeff Miller, who obtained $11 million for a child development center at Eglin Air Force Base in Pensacola, are happy to take credit for their earmarks when asked. Others, like Martin Sabo, D-Minn., immediately put out news releases trumpeting hometown projects like a $1 million sewer system upgrade for Minneapolis.

So why isn't the Appropriations Committee instituting the reforms, aimed at introducing greater openness to the earmarking process in the wake of scandals and ongoing federal investigations into lawmakers and their earmarks?

...snip...

The official reason is that the disclosure bill isn't yet law and leadership has agreed to apply the disclosure requirements to other committees and not just the Lewis-led Appropriations panel. Appropriators complain that lawmakers on other committees — like the tax-writing Ways and Means panel — should have to claim responsibility for their "pork," which is often far more costly.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060517/ap_on_go_co/congress_pet_projects