Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to require that the lists of earmarks be made available to the general public on the Internet.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend the House of Representatives for its approval of S. 1, legislation providing for the codification of important new lobbying and ethics rules. I also would like to take this opportunity to urge the Senate and President to promptly approve this important legislation.

I have been a longstanding supporter of efforts to make government more transparent, and to hold public officials and those who influence the legislative process accountable for their actions. Unfortunately, in recent years the influence of money in politics and a number of ethics scandals have tarnished the integrity of the Congress and led to increased public cynicism. There is a national crisis of confidence in our political system because of the influence of money in the legislative process, and the American people share a widely held belief that special interests, lobbyists, and the very wealthiest campaign contributors wield too much influence in government.

S. 1 is the logical continuation of the efforts that have already been undertaken in this Congress to provide greater transparency and to restore a sense of accountability to the Congress, and I am pleased that Congress is moving to establish new lobbying disclosure requirements and ethics enforcement mechanisms that will provide further additional deterrents to engaging in unethical behavior. I am also pleased that it would establish a new rule in the Senate regarding earmark transparency, specifically requiring that lists of earmarks, limited tax benefits, and limited tariff benefits included in bills, joint resolutions, or conference reports be made available on the Internet to the general public for at least 48 hours before consideration.

For several months I have advocated adding a similar requirement to the House rules so I am disappointed, however, that this requirement was not extended to the House of Representatives. In fact, on February 15, 2007, I introduced H. Res. 169, a House resolution that would bring the earmark disclosure requirements of the House in line with those of S. 1, which would ensure that lists of earmarks, limited tax benefits, and limited tariff benefits included in House bills, joint resolutions, or conference reports be made available on a publicly accessible website at least 48 hours before consideration. I believe that this is a commonsense reform to the House rules that would provide American taxpayers with easily accessible information on congressional earmarks and bring an additional level of transparency and accountability to the process. I encourage my colleagues in the House to join me in this to make the earmarking process in the House as open and transparent as possible.