Senator Barack Obama Cosponsors One-Year Moratorium on All Congressional Earmarks

March 10, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today released the following statement on his decision to cosponsor an amendment offered by Senator Jim DeMint to implement a one-year moratorium on all congressional earmarks during the FY 2009 appropriations cycle:

"As a U.S. Senator, I have long fought for greater transparency and accountability in federal spending. One of the legislative accomplishments of which I am most proud is a law I authored to create a searchable database of all federal contracts and grants. I also have championed greater disclosure requirements for earmarks to ensure that the public knows which member of Congress is sponsoring an earmark.

However, even with all of these reforms, I have come to believe that the system is broken. We can no longer accept a process that doles out earmarks based on a member of Congress' seniority, rather than the merit of the project. We can no longer accept an earmarks process that has become so complicated to navigate that a municipality or non-profit group has to hire high-priced D.C. lobbyists to do it. And we can no longer accept an earmarks process in which many of the projects being funded fail to address the real needs of our country.

The entire earmarks process needs to be re-examined and reformed. For that reason, I will be supporting Senator DeMint's amendment and will not be requesting earmarks this year for Illinois. Over the next year, I hope to work with my colleagues, both Democratic and Republican, to improve the earmarks process."

Source: Senator Barack Obama

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