[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1040 Laid on Table in House (LTH)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 1040

           Raising a question of the privileges of the House.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 12, 2008

 Mr. Boehner submitted the following resolution; which was laid on the 
                                 table

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
           Raising a question of the privileges of the House.

Whereas on June 13, 2007, the publication The Politico reported, ``Democratic 
        leaders gave in to Republican demands that lawmakers be allowed to 
        challenge individual member-requested projects from the final version of 
        each appropriations bill.'';
Whereas on November 15, 2007, Representatives Jack Kingston and Frank Wolf 
        introduced H. Con. Res. 263, to establish a Joint Select Committee on 
        Earmark Reform, and for other purposes;
Whereas on March 6, 2008, The Hill reports in ``Obey Criticizes Kingston on 
        earmarks'' that ``Kingston said Obey has been `very irritated' with his 
        push for reform.'';
Whereas on March 5, 2008, House Appropriations Chairman David Obey sent a Dear 
        Colleague to Republican Members stating ``In light of the continuing 
        discussion on earmarks in the Republican Conference, the Appropriations 
        Committee needs to determine how it would proceed.'';
Whereas on March 6, 2008, The Hill reports in ``Task Force Looking Beyond 
        Earmarks'' that ``Obey issued a memo to Republicans in multiple-choice 
        format asking them to check one of two boxes, stating whether they 
        believed in a one-year moratorium and therefore would not be submitting 
        earmark requests, or did not believe in a moratorium and would be 
        submitting requests. Obey spokeswoman Kristin Brost said Obey called the 
        memo his `anti-hypocrisy memo, aimed at House Minority Leader John 
        Boehner's (R-Ohio) repeated calls for a moratorium.''';
Whereas the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee Dave Obey stated in said 
        letter: ``Because it is important for the Committee to move ahead with 
        bills in a timely fashion, I will assume that any Member not returning 
        this form by March 19, 2008 wishes to see Congressional earmarks 
        discontinued and will therefore be submitting no request for fiscal year 
        2009.'';
Whereas House Rule XXIII Clause 16, states that a Member may not condition the 
        inclusion of language to provide funding for a congressional earmark on 
        any vote cast by another Member; and
Whereas the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Dave Obey, has conditioned 
        the receipt of an earmark from the Committee on Appropriations on a 
        Member's opposition to a moratorium on earmarks: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct is 
directed to investigate without further delay violations of House rules 
by Representative Dave Obey and report its findings and recommendations 
to the House, including a recommendation regarding the appropriate 
action for Representative Obey's violations.
                                 <all>