Lobbying reform - my idea

[AllegroRondo]

OK, its not entirely my idea. Its currently the law in Missouri.

We want to eliminate earmarks - the special money that Congress attaches to bills to fund specific projects for their lobbyists.

In Missouri, it is against the law for Congress to attach any amendment to a bill that is not immediately related to the title or original intent of the bill, as specified in the bill's first paragraph. So if a bill comes up "to allow Missouri citizens to carry concealed weapons", you cannot attach an amendment that also gives $2 Mil to fund your local bridge. (something similar really happened here) In this case, the State Supreme Court would rule that the additional line is illegal, but the remainder of the bill would stand.

Could this work at a national level?
Would it require a constitutional amendment?
Would Congress support it?

[VaYallaDawg]

1. Great idea to be sure - MO deserves congrats on this one.

Could it work at a national level - it could definitely work, IMO.

Would it require a constitutional amendment - I don't think so. It would require adoption by the rules committees of both House and Senate, and then have to be adopted by each house - since each of them sets the rules under which they operate.

Would Congress support it - that's the key question. Probably not a chance. Most of them see earmarking as a sure-fire way to stay in office.

Still, it would be a great break for the US taxpayer to have some daylight shed on what they do with all the Federal dollars. Which, of course, means it will never happen.

[onenote]

2. the problem is that earmarks go on spending bills

Earmarks are attached to appropriations bills. The bills are about spending. So the earmarks are germane. Under the process that exists, authorizations and appropriations are handled separately. Its a crappy system, but creating a separate bill for each spending item would be a nightmare.

onenote

[welshTerrier2]

3. it's a start but it's not good enough

during the hearings yesterday, Durbin pointed out that earmarks are only one of the problems ... you still have massive lobbying campaigns for the main spending bills themselves ... for example, the pharmaceutical industry virtually wrote last year's Medicare bill ...

earmarks have been abused beyond belief; in the end though, eliminating only earmarks would not bring about the reforms necessary to stop wealthy, powerful special interests from bribing government officials ...