Joint Statement by House Republican Leaders on GOP Proposal to Unilaterally Ban Earmarks

Washington, Mar 10 - The following joint statement was issued today by House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH), Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA), Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-IN), Policy Committee Chairman Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI), Conference Vice-Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Conference Secretary John Carter (R-TX), National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-TX), Rules Committee Ranking Republican David Dreier (R-CA), Chief Deputy Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and Republican Leadership Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR):

            “For millions of Americans, the earmark process in Congress has become a symbol of a broken Washington.  We believe the time has come for House Republicans to adopt an immediate, unilateral moratorium on all earmarks, including tax and tariff-related earmarks, and we will support changing the official rules of the House Republican Conference to incorporate such a moratorium when a special conference meeting on the matter takes place Thursday.  When Republicans take back the House, we will rein in out-of-control federal spending and bring fundamental change to the process by which Congress spends American taxpayers’ money.”

This moratorium was adopted by the entire House Republican Conference on March 11, 2010

The tool below may be used to search last year's earmark requests:

Search Earmark Request Database

Each year Members of Congress submit requests to the appropriations subcommittees for specific projects to be funded in bills that keep the federal government operating annually. These provisions are known as earmarks; once they are written into law, federal agencies must carry them out. Earmarks are present in other pieces of legislation as well, but those in appropriations bills have recently been the subject of much controversy.

In the past the information about who submitted these requests was not available to the public. This year all members who chose to submit earmark requests to the Appropriations Committee were compelled to disclose those requests on their Office website. We’ve compiled all of those requests into a searchable database here. Please peruse the database and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.

Use the fields below to search the database.