Confrontation looms in House over earmark proposal

With tempers smoldering from the pre-recess House budget blowup, next week's debate on a package of lobbying restrictions threatens to re-ignite the fight.

The measure's curbs on spending earmarks are drawing fire from House Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., who played a large role in the fiscal 2007 budget resolution's demise before the break. A spokesman said it was too early to say what the reaction would be to Thursday's expected consideration of the lobbying bill.

But Lewis appears in no mood to compromise, especially after being savaged by conservative editorialists during the recess over his budget stance. At this stage, GOP leaders are still inclined to retain earmark restrictions in the lobbying bill, aides said, although conservatives also are amenable to considering the proposals as part of a separate House rules change.

The Republican Study Committee and GOP leaders struck a deal before the recess that would -- as part of the lobbying bill or a separate rules change -- create another point of order against appropriations conference reports if they contain earmarks that were "airdropped" into conference reports, or those not included in the House or Senate versions.

The point of order would apply only if appropriators do not identify the sponsors of such earmarks in a list accompanying the bill. That prospect as well as new emergency spending restrictions in the budget resolution itself provoked Lewis' opposition.

Lewis argues the new point of order could allow Democrats or other opponents to stop or slow a bill by tying it in procedural knots. Also, Lewis opposes a "piecemeal" approach to earmark reform, in that it would not apply to tax bills or major authorizing legislation such as multi-year transportation bills.

"My longstanding view of earmark reform ... is that it needs to be comprehensive and address earmarks wherever they appear," Lewis wrote Friday in response to criticism Thursday by conservative columnist Robert Novak. The Senate lobbying bill would allow senators to strike items that appear in conference reports of all sorts, not just appropriations.

House leadership aides say restrictions on legislation other than spending bills will be addressed as part of a line-item veto proposal later next month, perhaps in conjunction with other rules changes. The lobbying bill is "the first step in a longer mile towards complete reform -- including authorizing," one aide said.

A spokesman for Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he is "interested" in pursuing further earmark changes beyond the appropriations process, but that he considers the lobbying bill provisions "a big step towards comprehensive reforms of Congress."

A spokesman for Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said Pence is open to broadening the scope as well but that "he wants it to deal with the problem we're going to face next," he said.

Other House aides said it would be more difficult to deal with tax or authorizing bills since they come to the floor under closed or structured rules. Also, including tax or authorizing bills in the earmark restrictions would require GOP leaders to placate ornery chairmen such as Ways and Means Chairman William Thomas, R-Calif., and Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska.