Republicans Say Bush Needs Tougher Action against Pet Project Spending

WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans, chastened after years of setting historic records for pork barrel spending, said Monday that President Bush's plan to restrain pet projects does not go far enough.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, offered only tepid praise after the White House previewed the president's plan to veto any future spending bill that does not reduce "earmarks" by half from current levels.

Instead, Boehner urged an immediate moratorium on all earmarks and the creation of a bipartisan panel to reform the congressional spending rules and force more open consideration of individual projects.

The anti-pork proposal had been put together by Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., with fellow members of the House Appropriations Committee — the very panel that has been blamed for piling up pork projects for member districts.

Kingston quipped that his reform group has no name but could be dubbed "Repentant Sinners Who Knew Better."

"I've caught grief within the Appropriations (Committee) family" for leading the reform effort, said Kingston, who joined with Rep. Zach Wamp of Tennessee and Frank Wolf of Virginia, last fall. As of last week, their moratorium proposal had gathered more than 100 fellow Republican cosponsors. Some Republicans have gone so far as to pledge not to take any earmarks for the time being.

Kingston's proposal would require new standards, such as more disclosure of projects, advance notice and open debates.

"I think that a debate on what's a good earmark, what's a bad earmark is necessary," said Kingston, who asserted that he carefully reviews his earmarks for Georgia and would be happy to have them scrutinized.

He added that more worthy projects, such as federal assistance to combat drought in Georgia, Alabama and Florida, would "move to the top of the list" through such a process.

Kingston said he has had informal discussions with the Democratic leadership about his earmark reforms, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has not yet indicated that her party would go along with the measure. House Democrats required more disclosure for earmarks when they took over as the majority last year.

Fiscal watchdog groups acknowledged some progress last year but panned Bush's anti-pork effort, which includes an executive order to instruct federal agencies to ignore language in congressional reports directing money to pet projects — but not until next year.

Critics said Bush should target waste in the estimated $15 billion in earmarks passed for the current fiscal year.

"Unfortunately, he could not resist the fiscal snake oil peddled by pork-barreling members of Congress," said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste.

Ryan Alexander, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense credited Congress for making some progress in reducing the number of 2008 earmarks, but she faulted Bush for "passing the buck on reigning in earmarks" by putting off most of the oversight until next year.