Federal Funds for Pet Projects Under Assault in U.S. Congress

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the ramped up effort to reform earmarks -all earmarks last year amounted to $27.3 billion, about 6.5 percent of the budget deficit. .

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=a0GVR8OLet8k

Federal Funds for Pet Projects Under Assault in U.S. Congress
By Brian Faler
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Senator Tom Coburn is declaring war on indoor rain forests.
The Oklahoma Republican is threatening to slow the Senate's business to a crawl by forcing his colleagues to vote on each of the thousands of obscure, sometimes unusual pork-barrel projects -- such as one to build an indoor rain forest in Iowa -- that lawmakers tuck into spending bills.

``We may not get the votes, but the American public needs to hear the debate,'' Coburn said. ``Should we be spending money in ways that are other than in the vital interest of the country?''

Recent criticism by President George W. Bush and newly elected House Majority Leader John Boehner has given momentum to a legislative effort to change or limit lawmakers' ability to reserve federal funds for projects in their home districts, called earmarks.
Lawmakers are mulling new rules that would make it harder to insert earmarks into legislation and force members of Congress to put their names on all requests. The proposals are part of a bid to remove any appearance of corruption in the wake of former Representative Randy ``Duke'' Cunningham's guilty plea to bribery charges and a continuing corruption probe centered on Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Some lawmakers who want changes also cite excesses -- 6,000 pet projects were funded in last year's $286 billion transportation spending measure -- and concern over a deficit estimated to reach $423 billion this year.

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