Democrats’ Pledge to End Individual Financing of Pet Projects May Change Little

From The New York Times:

The Democrats taking over the Congressional appropriations committees next year have boldly pledged to place a moratorium on earmarks, the pet spending items that individual lawmakers insert into major spending bills behind the scenes.

But like much resolute talk in the Capitol, the declaration may not have the sweeping effect that the plan’s backers have suggested and its critics have denounced. Although earmarks figured prominently in some recent Congressional bribery scandals, they have also become cherished instruments of political power, used by party leaders to reward or punish members and by incumbents to buy good will among their constituents.

So the Congressional reaction was swift and vigorous when the two new appropriations chairmen, Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia and Representative David R. Obey of Wisconsin, said in a joint statement that “there will be no Congressional earmarks” in the resolution they draft to bridge over the unfinished spending bills for the 2007 fiscal year, declaring “a moratorium on all earmarks until a reformed process is put in place.”

But the scope of the declared moratorium may be far more limited than it sounds.