February 2, 2007

Senate Joins House in Effort to Reduce Secrecy on Congressional Earmarks

By JEFFREY BRAINARD

The U.S. Senate voted unanimously in January to disclose information about the intended recipients and purposes of earmarks, approving language that closely matched rules adopted earlier in the month by the House of Representatives. Lawmakers said the sunshine might cut down on the overall number of earmarks, but some observers in academe said they doubted that.

The wording was approved in two separate votes, each 98 to 0, on amendments to an underlying bill (S 1) that the Senate also

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