Much of the discussion on Capitol Hill nowadays centers on earmarks: those discrete priorities that senators and representatives quietly insert into moving legislation. While House Republicans celebrate a commitment by Democrats to subject earmarks to scrutiny and challenge, word comes that one of the Senate’s committed earmark foes is casting his gaze in a new direction:
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is taking his earmark crusade across the Capitol to the House fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill, mobilizing his aides and interns to blanket House Armed Services Committee member offices with calls and e-mails requesting more information on their individual add-ons. It is an unorthodox tactic — and one that has prompted criticism from House aides, who point out that the House committee’s report on the authorization bill complies with House rules. It includes 13 pages of charts providing details on 458 individual projects totaling $7.7 billion, they say… The earmark disclosures in the House-passed defense authorization bill include the budget account from which the funding will be drawn, a brief description of the project, the amount, the intended recipient and the requesting member. But Coburn is not satisfied with the disclosures.
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