[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 55 (Thursday, March 29, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S4134]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--S. RES. 123

  Mr. DeMINT. Mr. President, earlier this year the Senate worked 
together to change the way we appropriate money in Congress. One of the 
big showdowns that we had earlier in the year with the new majority was 
the discussion of earmarks and how we would disclose them and be more 
transparent to the American people. We worked hard. I introduced an 
amendment that would provide disclosure at the committee level and 
asked that the committee put any earmarks on the Internet and tell who 
offered the earmark and what it would go for, to make sure there is no 
conflict of interest.
  Originally, the majority tried to table that motion, but once we 
worked together on language and worked out every detail, that amendment 
was agreed to 98 to 0. It was unanimous that we should stop earmarking 
the way we are today and use commonsense disclosure rules for America 
to know how we are spending its money.
  Unfortunately, that amendment is part of the lobbying reform, ethics 
reform bill that has gone to conference with the House that apparently 
is not going to act on it at all. My proposal has been that we take 
what we passed in the Senate. We are beginning the appropriations 
process again. Unless we impose these rules on ourselves, rules that we 
all agreed on, we are going to go through the same thing we did last 
year where we put all these bills together, with thousands of earmarks, 
and at the end of the year some of us are going to be forced to try to 
stop the whole process, which, hopefully, we will not do.
  What I would like to do today to fix this problem is take the 
amendment we have passed unanimously before and bring it up and pass it 
in the Senate as a Senate rule so we would operate under the rules that 
we have all agreed to during this appropriations season. The resolution 
number is 123, so fixing the current appropriations problem and earmark 
problem is as easy as 1, 2, 3.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Rules Committee be 
discharged from further consideration, and the Senate now proceed to S. 
Res. 123; further, that the resolution be agreed to and the motion to 
reconsider be laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? The Senator from New 
Jersey is recognized.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. I believe there is an appropriate process to consider 
the Senator's request, but at this time I object.
  Mr. DeMINT. Mr. President, I am certainly disappointed. This is 
something to which we have agreed. We worked out the language with the 
majority. Certainly, we should be operating under the rules that we 
have agreed to during this appropriations season.
  It is very unfortunate. I am very disappointed. I guess I have no 
choice, if the majority is going to object.
  I yield and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The 
Senator from West Virginia is recognized.

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