Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Fight Club 2007, the next chapter

According to a rule of the House of Representatives :

A Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner may not condition the inclusion of language to provide funding for a congressional earmark, a limited tax benefit, or a limited tariff benefit in any bill or joint resolution (or an accompanying report) or in any conference report on a bill or joint resolution (including an accompanying joint explanatory statement of managers) on any vote cast by another Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner.
When a colleague objected to an earmark, as an earlier post mentioned, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) told him: “I hope you don’t have any earmarks in the defense appropriations bills because they are gone and you will not get any earmarks now and forever.” That threat would seem to be a clear violation of the rule.

But today, on a largely party-line vote, the House tabled a resolution to reprimand him. Politico.com reports: "During the vote, Murtha sat in a darkened corner of the House floor,
laughing with colleagues who surrounded him."

1 comment:

Mr. Park said...

Prof. Pitney, do you think Ron Paul has any sort of chance to make an impact in the Republican primaries?