Joe Barton: “I want to bring a little bit of openness to this debate and this process. Those of us on the minority side are not…”

“I want to bring a little bit of openness to this debate and this process. Those of us on the minority side are not concerned about the overall scope of the Homeland Security bill. Chairman Price and Ranking Member Rogers, I think, have done an outstanding job on the substance of the bill. But we are very concerned about the lack of openness and transparency on what are called ``earmarks,'' because the majority party campaigned specifically for openness and transparency on this particular issue, and this is the first appropriation bill, and there is no openness and transparency on earmarks. So I am going to start a precedent at least for the Sixth Congressional District, which is the district that I represent. I am going to put my earmarks in the Record on this bill. I have two of them. The first one is for the City of Arlington, Texas. It is a request for $10 million to replace all of the radio equipment and communication equipment for the City of Arlington Police Department so they meet the new Project 25 interoperability requirement. So that is my first earmark. The second earmark is also for the City of Arlington, Texas. It is a $2 million request for the Narcotics Task Force.”