GOP leaders push House vote on earmark disclosure rule

House Republican leaders are pressing for a vote next week on a House rules change requiring disclosure of the sponsors of earmarks in spending and tax bills, GOP aides said Wednesday.

Proposed language was circulating among relevant committee chairmen in hope of reaching a consensus by early next week. The rule would require disclosure of earmark sponsors in completed and unamendable conference reports. If not properly disclosed, they would be subject to points of order against floor consideration of the underlying bills.

A spokesman for Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the timing had not yet been finalized, but aides said the goal was to bring up the rule change next week. The move appears to preclude a House-Senate agreement on a comprehensive lobbying reform package before the elections, although a Senate leadership aide said that chamber was still aiming for a deal.

The aide said the Senate probably would take up its rules change -- containing some lobbying as well as earmark reforms -- before adjournment at the end of the month if there is no lobbying agreement by then.

House leadership aides and staff for the committees that would be affected -- particularly Appropriations and Ways and Means -- had discussions before and during the August recess on the matter, and talks were continuing this week. Initial proposals contain definitions of earmarks similar to that in the House-passed lobbying bill for appropriations earmarks.

They would define earmarks as "providing a specific amount" of funding "to a non-federal entity, if such entity is identified by name" other than state or local governments, Indian tribes or foreign governments. In accordance with a deal between GOP leaders and Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., on the lobbying bill, the new proposal would broaden the rules change to cover targeted tax provisions and mandatory spending.

The definition of tax earmarks, which aides discussed at length during the break, could resemble that in the House-passed line item veto bill that defines targeted tax earmarks as having only one beneficiary. Anything defined as a tax earmark for the purposes of a potential point of order would have to meet with approval of the Ways and Means Committee chairman, rather than an impartial body such as the Joint Committee on Taxation.

The language was still subject to change, aides said, as discussions continue with Lewis and the other chairmen this week.

While the House moves ahead with earmark transparency rules the Senate has also become embroiled in a grudge match between appropriators in that chamber and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., over his bill to create a government database to track earmarked spending and grants.

Aides said GOP leaders were trying to resolve various "holds" on the bill, perhaps by allowing debate and votes on amendments to the Coburn bill, which he co-sponsored with Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

In a statement Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said "someway, somehow the Senate will vote this month" on the bill. The House has passed similar legislation.

Greta Wodele contributed to this report.