House GOP addresses earmark reform

House Republicans were holed away at the Greenbrier in West Virginia yesterday. They spent much of the day trying to deal with the issue of earmark reform. After much discussion, some consensus was reached. The AP reports:

"House Republicans believe that the earmark system should be brought to an immediate halt, and a bipartisan select committee should immediately be established for the purpose of identifying ways to bring fundamental change to the way in which Washington spends taxpayers' money," House GOP leaders said in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

More from the NY Times:

House Republicans called on Friday for “an immediate moratorium” on earmarking money for pet projects. They urged Democrats to join them in establishing a bipartisan panel to set strict new standards for such spending.

As an interim step, House Republican leaders said, they will insist that all House Republicans follow standards to eliminate “wasteful pork-barrel spending.”

Republicans set forth their intentions in a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The letter reflects a fragile consensus reached Friday after more than two hours of impassioned debate among House Republicans, who met behind closed doors at their annual conference at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.

Red State has the actual letter here.

This looks pretty good on the surface, but as always in Congress the devil is in the details. A few initial thoughts...How long is this moratorium? It is unclear. Some folks on the hill are saying that contrary to what the Red State post says, this is only a six month cease fire. Why not make it a whole year? Who in the GOP is afraid to make it a year? If earmarking is as messed up as this letter indicates it is than why only take a break from it for six months? The answer, I am sure, lies in the fact that old bull appropriators still run rampant in the GOP, and they probably pulled the discussion at the Greenbrier away from a year or more long moratorium.

My second thought...We had better make darn sure that this commission called for in the letter is not stacked with congressional porkers who will eventually rubber stamp pork barrel spending. Anyone who has spent anytime watching Congress work understands that this is a very real possibility.

Finally, what happens when/if Nancy Pelosi rejects this proposal? I assume at that point this moratorium disappears and this becomes nothing more than a political football. Now don't get me wrong, being able to say that Dems turned down GOP efforts to reform earmarks is great politics, but without the GOP following through on the moratorium it ceases to become sound policy.

Republicans have historically been at their best when they started with sound policy that turned in to great politics. This unfortunately does not look to be one of those instances. Minority Leader Boehner should insist that his conference back up their rhetoric in this letter to Pelosi. If Dems reject the moratorium the GOP should walk the talk and enter into it anyway. Lead by example.