A great start to the Congress!

A bipartisan group of Senators is pushing for stronger earmark reform. Senators McCain, McCaskill, Feingold, and Coburn are all cosponsors.

Quoting McCaskill, from the Chicago Tribune:  McCaskill added that she has seen funding provided in a defense bill for a golf course and other earmarks dropped into bills that only a handful of staffers and lobbyists know about.

It’ll be interesting to see how many Senators oppose this much-needed legislation, which would require laws to be available in full online for lawmakers to review at least 48 hours prior to voting.  The bill would also let Senators challenge spending in bills and conference reports (!).

They plan to attach the bill to the economic stimulus package, which is, unfortunately, likely to be the pork bill to end all pork bills. We’re basically getting Congress to authorize $1,000,000,000,000 in spending, and that kind of money draws special interests better than bees to honey.