Thad Cochran: “I appreciate this colloquy and your intent to meet all the new, as well as old, ethics requirements regarding earmarks…”

“I appreciate this colloquy and your intent to meet all the new, as well as old, ethics requirements regarding earmarks in appropriations bills. This is the first year for implementation of many of these new ethics rules and there has been some not unexpected confusion over how some of the new requirements must be implemented. I applaud your aggressiveness in making sure that you have done everything within your knowledge and power to ensure that you have complied with all the rules and requirements that are specified by the rules of the Senate with regard to the use of earmarks. Our discussion today provides the type of transparency intended by the ethics rules and should satisfy all requirements with regard to letters of pecuniary interest and earmarks as they relate to your situation.”