The new Congress has agreed to take action on earmarks, the budget items better known as "pork projects." Think, for instance, of the $13.5 million that helped subsidize 2005's World Toilet Summit in Northern Ireland, an expenditure worthy of jests about fiscal incontinence. In a mostly party-line 280-152 vote last week, the House passed changes to rules requiring that both the spending projects and their sponsors be disclosed on the Internet at least 48 hours before they are considered on the floor. Members of Congress will also be required to justify the public need for the expenditures and to certify that they won't benefit financially from them.
展开▼
