AP: House Dems Move to Change Budget Rules (PAYGO)

[Eugene]

House Dems Move to Change Budget Rules
House Democrats Push Proposal to Increase Spending
Only With Cuts in Other Funding

By ANDREW TAYLOR

WASHINGTON Jan 5, 2007 (AP)— The House moved Friday in only its second
day under Democratic reign toward changing budget rules that allowed deficits
to swell with lawmakers' pet projects and President Bush's tax cuts.

The changes could bedevil efforts to appease middle-class voters later.

Another rule change planned over Republican objections promised to curb past
abuses in which GOP leaders held votes open for hours and excluded minority
party lawmakers from House-Senate negotiations on the language of final bills
sent to the White House for enactment.

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Most Republicans also were expected to vote against a Democratic proposal
to require lawmakers to disclose publicly their want for pet projects referred
to as earmarks in legislative terms for their districts or states, such as
Alaska's bridge to nowhere in the last Congress.

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Full article: http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2773403