House GOP Launches Discharge Petition On Earmarks

House Republicans are ratcheting up their attacks on the Democratic majority by introducing a procedural vehicle Thursday to push for a vote applying earmark changes in the annual spending bills to tax and authorizing bills as well.

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and his Republican colleagues are expected to unveil a discharge petition Thursday to force a vote on the House floor on legislation expanding the scope of changes made this year that required members to add their names to special projects they request in spending bills.

“The Democrats' system is so ripe for abuse that it makes a mockery of their promise to run a more transparent and accountable Congress," Boehner said in a statement. "It’s also a step backward from the system implemented by the Republican-led House in 2006 - the one they disingenuously decried as a sham for election-year politics -which applied earmark reform to all types of bills, including authorizing and tax bills.”

This is just the next step in an ongoing drive by the GOP to criticize majority Democrats for being inconsistent about spending. They will use this discharge petition as a vehicle to maintain these attacks.

Members of the minority, led by the conservative Republican Study Committee, almost brought the House to a screetching halt in June after Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) suggested he would add these projects to spending bills after they had passed the House and Senate.