Souder pleased with earmark reforms announced in Congress on Tuesday
The chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations committees announced earmark-related reforms Tuesday to bring transparency to the appropriations process. Members of Congress will now be required to publicly disclose their earmark requests.
This change does not come as a reform mandate to Third District Congressman Mark Souder who has annually released his earmarks since being elected in 1994.
“I am glad to see the rest of Congress is catching up,” Souder joked. “Since being elected to Congress, I have believed that disclosure is an essential part of accountability, and that Hoosier taxpayers have the right to know where their hard-earned dollars are being spent. I am pleased to see these changes to that end.”
The following reforms will be applied to all 2010 appropriations requests:
- On their websites, members will be required to post each earmark, and its value to the taxpayer.
- Disclosure tables will be available during subcommittee markups in addition to full committee markups.
- The chairmen agreed to cut the overall level of earmarks to 50 percent of the 2006 level (earmarks in fiscal year 2008 spending bills were already cut by 43 percent from the 2006 level).
- Earmarks would be held below one percent of discretionary spending in future years.
Members of Congress submit their appropriations requests to the committee each year in the spring.