[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15672]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            SECRECY AND NEGLECT REPLACE EARMARK TRANSPARENCY

  (Ms. FOXX asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to make a pledge to the American 
people. I pledge to fight secrecy in the Federal spending process. It 
seems that some Democratic lawmakers would like to keep earmarks in 
spending bills secret until August, months after the House votes on the 
bills that will contain the requests.
  By air-dropping these earmarks in at the last minute, my Democratic 
colleagues are effectively cutting off debate on potentially wasteful 
or controversial items.
  Instead of the transparency and accountability they promised, the 
Democrats' spending bills will essentially include a slush fund for 
billions of dollars in earmarks hidden from public scrutiny. I honestly 
can't believe it. These taxpayer-backed slush funds will fund earmarks 
without actually putting them into the bills before the House votes.
  This is dangerous turf. Americans don't want more secrecy; they want 
less. As the Baltimore Sun wrote yesterday, the Democrats' new rules 
have ``made the process exponentially worse.''
  Mr. Speaker, we must restore accountability to the process lest the 
path to corruption is paved smooth by secrecy and neglect.

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