Earmark in SCHIP Bill

Floor Speech

EARMARK IN SCHIP BILL -- (House of Representatives - September 26, 2007)

Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the House passed a SCHIP bill that makes a mockery of the earmark rules. An already seriously flawed bill got worse when it became clear that we would be voting on a bill that had been given a sham earmark certification. Quite simply, this bill contained an earmark, despite receiving the earmark-free designation by the House Rules Committee.

The House rules are clear. If a bill has earmarks, it must be identified accordingly. But, somehow, the Democrat majority shoehorned money for specific health care facilities into yesterday's SCHIP legislation and slipped it through committee.

I don't doubt there are medical facilities that need funding, but not funding that bends the rules. Are the American people supposed to take proclamations about new ethical standards seriously? If anything, we are witnessing a new atmosphere of hypocrisy, a charade of openness that veils a status quo rife with secret earmark spending.

This is not the way this House should do business. Let's get back to doing business the way the American people want, without secret earmark spending and with accountability for every dollar in every piece of legislation.

END

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