"White House Pressures OMB To Withhold Earmark Data From The Public
In his 2007 State of the Union address, President Bush promised to reform the congressional earmarking process:
The time has come to end this practice [of congressional earmarking]. So let usThe Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced plans last week to “step up the administration’s effort to cut earmarks by posting on its website next week all earmarks identified by federal agencies in fiscal year 2005 appropriations bills.”
work together to reform the budget process … expose every earmark to the light
of day and to a vote in Congress.
But according to Mark Tapscott at the D.C. Examiner, the White House is reneging on this pledge and is pressuring the OMB to release only a partial list of congressional earmarks:
[Last week I heard from Hill sources] that the White House congressional liason
staff was pressuring OMB Director Rob Portman to not release all of the earmarks
requested by Members of Congress to executive agencies under the FY2005 budget.
…
Now this morning, word is circulating on the Hill that the Bush
administration is going to release only a limited database of earmarks later
today or maybe no database at all, but just aggregate or summary data."
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