GOP sets sights on earmarks in bills

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- The Republican Party has joined in the political chorus to put an end to earmarking congressional bills with unrelated spending measures, leaders said.

As Democratic President Barack Obama made a call Saturday for legislators to stop using earmarks, also known as "pork barreling," the two top Republican House leaders issued a joint statement saying the party would put the issue to a vote before Congress resumes in full in January, The Hill reported.

Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, the presumptive speaker and Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., expected to be the next House leader, said a party vote would be held next week and set the tone for it by describing earmarks as "a symbol of a dysfunctional Congress."

Earmarks are usually local initiatives unrelated to the core of the bills that are inserted by representatives and senators that get swept along through passage.

Boehner and Cantor said in the statement Obama also needed to exercise his executive authority to put an end to earmarked bills.

"If the President is committed to real earmark reform, he could demonstrate that immediately by agreeing to veto any spending measure this year or next that includes earmarks," their statement said.