John Boehner, May 5, 2006

Last week, with little fanfare, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the first set of significant reforms aimed at reducing pork-barrel spending. The Lobbying Accountability and Transparency Act (H.R. 4975) cracks down on “earmarks,” line-items Members of Congress use to steer taxpayer dollars and favors towards projects of questionable worth. The reforms should give anyone with an interest in making Congress more accountable and getting federal spending under control a reason to celebrate.

The road to reform has been a long one. In the winter of 1991, shortly after I was first elected to Congress, I wrote a weekly column entitled, “Bringing home bacon without political pork.” Incidentally, I still have a copy of it that ran in the Pulse-Journal. The thrust of the article was this: I would work hard to represent my district well and fight for our fair share of the federal pie. But I wouldn’t be a party to the pork-barrel politics that infect our nation’s capital.

My position has never changed. For fifteen years I’ve been an outspoken critic of wasteful spending and I haven’t been shy about it. I’ve repeatedly voted against transportation bills -- often the vehicle for the most egregious wastes of taxpayer dollars. I’ve promoted efforts to reduce the number of earmarks and promote fiscal responsibility -- even though that doesn’t always make you a popular guy.

Over time, however, the number of earmarks grew exponentially. Last year’s highway bill contained more than 5,000 of them amounting to well over $20 billion in taxpayer dollars.

But even that level of recklessness wasn’t enough to spur lawmakers into a reform mindset. It ultimately took well-publicized scandals involving Members of both political parties to focus the public’s attention on the many problems earmarks pose, not just in terms of fiscal discipline, but in terms of ethics. Current law enables a Member of Congress to steer dollars and favors to special interests with little to no accountability.

Ninety-nine percent of Representatives, lobbyists, and others involved in the political process are perfectly ethical and act only with the public’s best interests in mind. But there are clearly a few bad apples that don’t. And the publicity their abuses attracted finally made apparent the need for changing the way Congress does business. Add to the situation a federal budget that is still in the red and facing bigger problems down the road, and the moment for real reform finally presented itself.

In my race for House Majority Leader I made earmark and budget reforms a focal point of the campaign. I wrote:

“We need to get our arms around the power that our budget represents. We need to distinguish, for example, between legitimate earmarks with a clear local need and those for which the merits are less well demonstrated.”

Will the reforms passed last week help us do that? Absolutely. H.R. 4975 increases transparency in the budget process by requiring a list of earmarks - including the names of the people requesting them – to be included in an appropriations bill or report accompanying the bill. This will help the public and Members of Congress better distinguish between worthy expenditures and good old-fashioned pork. It is a simple and important step towards reining in federal spending and ensuring Congress spends taxpayer dollars wisely.

The House and the Senate will soon get together and iron out the differences in their respective bills. I’m hopeful that it won’t be long before we can come to an agreement and send the President a strong bill for his signature.

Nobody ever said Washington moves quickly. But after fifteen years of speaking out against rampant fiscal irresponsibility, I’m proud to be here now and see these reforms moving forward. By no means is our work done, but we’re on the right path.

Congressman John Boehner is the House Majority Leader. Boehner, a Republican, represents Ohio's Eighth Congressional District, which includes Miami, Butler, Preble, Darke, and Mercer Counties.