The following is cross-posted at www.fiscalaccountability.org:

Americans for Tax Reform and its Center for Fiscal Accountability today commended Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R, VA-6) and his 163 co-sponsors for sponsoring a resolution expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that Democratic Members of the House should join Republican Members of the House in a total ban on earmarks for one year.

The resolution stipulates that discretionary spending should be reduced in the concurrent resolution on the budget for FY 2011 by the total amount spent on earmark requests in 2010. It further calls for the creation of a bipartisan/bicameral committee to review and overhaul the congressional budgetary, spending and earmark processes. Rep. Goodlatte announced the effort at a press conference held Thursday with several Members of House GOP leadership.

Says ATR president Grover Norquist:

Earmarks are the broken window of the federal budget. They may seem small in actual fiscal value when compared to the overall size to the budget, but they are emblematic of all that is wrong with the appropriations process. Ultimately, they represent an open invitation to the entrenched ‘you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours’ mentality.

The resolution follows a unilateral self-imposed GOP conference-wide moratorium on all earmarks for FY 2011. Meanwhile, Democratic leaders had announced a partial ban on earmarks benefiting for-profit entities.

Continues Norquist:

Taxpayers appreciated the GOP conference-wide moratorium, and have taken it as a signal that Members of Congress are beginning to question their own spending habits - as well they should. House Democrats would be well-advised to join Republicans in this effort, and the House should use the opportunity to reform the broken appropriations process while the moratorium is in effect.

Click here for a PDF of the press release.

Photo credit: The Pug Father