Presidentﾒs SAP on FY07 Omnibus

The President’s Statement of Administration Policy on the FY07 spending bill is out.

I am heartened by the Administration's comment:

“The President has called for earmark reform and the Administration has previously commended the Appropriations Committee Chairs for committing to no earmarks in H.J. Res. 20.  The Administration continues to analyze the bill to determine whether earmarks are included. “

We're still analyzing too. There are no obvious earmarks, so instead we have to go through each of the FY06 spending bills and make sure each one has the legislative (not report) earmarks extracted.

Interestingly, the SAP also indicates:

“The Administration looks forward to working with Congress on continued earmark reduction and reform in the coming months, and will work with heads of executive departments and agencies to ensure that earmarks in Appropriations Committee reports for FY 2006 are treated in a manner consistent with section 112.”

That section is the one that says report earmarks have no effect in law, which of course they don't anyway. When this bill passes, we're may find a lot of burned up phone lines between Capitol Hill and the federal agencies as members of Congress dial for earmark dollars.

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