Tom Coburn: “this amendment has been voted on twice in the Senate. It has been accepted by two other subcommittee chairmen. It is a…”

“this amendment has been voted on twice in the Senate. It has been accepted by two other subcommittee chairmen. It is a very simple amendment that the American people want. It says we ought to know what we are voting on. When a bill comes from the House, it has certain earmarks and special things in it. The Senate produces a bill based on that bill that goes to conference, and earmarks and additional things are placed in that bill as well as the House original earmarks. It comes back out in a conference report for us to vote on, but there is no clarity to list in that conference report where the earmarks, the actual items that have been directed by Members of Congress, are going.They are in there. Can you dig them out? It takes about 4 days to dig them out. This is a very simple amendment. All it says is we ought to know what we are voting on. It is not to say the earmarks are bad or good, it is to say they ought to be out there so we can discuss them. If somebody has an earmark, that Senator ought to be proud enough to stand up and defend it if there is criticism of it. It is about good government, about shining a light on government so we know in fact what we are voting on when we vote on a conference report on an appropriations bill. I have been told by the chairman that this is probably acceptable. I await his response. At the last vote on this amendment it passed by 55 to 39 on the Agriculture appropriations bill.…”