Open Letter to President Bush

Club for Growth Urges President Bush to Turn off Earmark Spigot

Washington – Today, the Club for Growth urged President Bush to stand up to wasteful spending and turn off the earmark spigot contained in the fiscal year 2008 omnibus bill.

The 3,417-page omnibus appropriations bill is chock full of earmarks bringing the total in this year’s spending bills to 11,331 with a price tag of about $20 billion. Even though Nancy Pelosi called for cutting the number of earmarks in half for FY 2008, the Democratic majority and many Republicans were all too happy to keep piling on the pork. Some of these earmarks include:

• New York’s Center for Grape Genetics
• Peanut production in Georgia
• Rice research in Arkansas
• Pennsylvania’s Center for Dairy Excellence
• Bronx River restoration
• Maine’s Lobster Institute

While President Bush cannot reduce the price tag of the omnibus bill, he can issue an Executive Order directing agencies to refuse to implement earmarks not explicitly listed in the legislation, but stuffed into committee reports. Such an Executive Order would also eliminate all hidden non-legislative earmarks in the future, injecting much needed transparency into the earmarking process.

“We encourage President Bush to issue an Executive Order to cut down on the number of earmarks and insure taxpayer dollars are being spent in the most efficient manner possible,” said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. “To be sure, many congressmen will kick and scream over the loss of their pork, but taxpayers deserve better.”

The Club for Growth has signed a coalition letter (see below) urging President Bush to issue such an Executive Order.

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December 21, 2007
The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500

Mr. President:

This past week, Congress passed an omnibus spending bill that will soon be presented for your signature. While it is consistent with the total budget targets your administration has set, the 3,417 pages of the bill and associated reports are bloated by more than 9,000 earmarks which were subjected to little or no review during the scant 24 hours between the publishing of the bill text and the House voting to pass it. When combined with the more than 2,000 earmarks in the Defense Appropriations Bill this Congress has churned out over 11,000 earmarks this year. The vast majority of these earmarks do not even appear in the legislative text, but rather are buried in the committee reports that accompany the bill, further removing them from proper review and scrutiny. While the total number of earmarks is down compared to record highs and there is increased transparency, there are still far too many to be effectively vetted.

The rushed way in which Congress passed the omnibus - one of the largest pieces of legislation ever considered - made a mockery of our legislative process, and Congress itself bears the responsibility and shame for that. But you have the power to send a message both to Congress and the American people that the waste and corrupting influence of earmarks will not be tolerated. A December 18 legal analysis by the Congressional Research Service concluded that "because the language of committee reports does not meet the procedural requirements of Article I of the Constitution -- specifically, bicameralism and presentment - they are not laws and, therefore, are not legally binding on executive agencies... Given both the implied legal and constitutional authority as well as the long-standing accepted process of Presidents, it appears that a President can, if he so chooses, issue an executive order with respect to earmarks contained solely in committee reports and not in any way incorporated into the legislative text."

On December 20, you stated that you were "instructing the budget director to review options for dealing with the wasteful spending in the omnibus bill." We applaud you for this leadership, and ask that you follow through by issuing an executive order formally directing all Federal agencies to ignore non-legislative earmarks tucked into committee reports and statements of managers. Such an action is within your Constitutional powers, and would strike a blow for fiscal responsibility now while setting a valuable precedent for the future.

Tell Congress and the American public that the era of earmarks is over, and that the Congressional "favor factory" which mints earmarks is closed. The American taxpayer will applaud such an action, as will the many honest legislators in Congress who are trying to fight the broken and corrupt appropriations machine. We hope that you embrace this opportunity, and thank you for your leadership on this issue.

Sincerely,

American Conservative Union
American Values
Americans for Prosperity
Americans for Tax Reform
Calvert Institute for Policy Research
Citizens Against Government Waste
Club for Growth
Commonwealth Foundation
Eagle Forum
Evergreen Freedom Foundation
Family Research Council
Freedom Works
Illinois Policy Institute
Larry Kudlow, Kudlow & Company, LLC
The National Tax Limitation Committee
National Taxpayers Union
Porkbusters.org
Taxpayers for Common Sense