Political Quotes

“Under these new guidelines, all earmarks will be clearly identified in the committee bill and report, including the requesting Senator, the amount of the earmark, the recipient of the earmark, and the purpose of the earmark. An earmark shall be defined as in the Senate-passed ethics reform bill, which Mr. DeMint and I cosponsored. The committee bill and report will be published on the Internet--as my amendment required--so that the world can see these earmarks in advance of final passage. Senators will be required to certify that neither they nor their spouses have any financial interests in any earmark. These guidelines will be in place until the ethics reform bill is signed into law. I commend the Presiding Officer as chairman of the Appropriations Committee for reaching out to the other side of the aisle, to the ranking member, Senator Cochran from Mississippi, so that he has been informed of our intention to reform this earmark process. Earmark disclosure, though, is only one part of the much broader package.”