Washington Post: Up to Their Earmarks

Due to the money spent on earmarks and porkbarrel tripling over the last decade according to CRS, some legislators are asking the President to instruct his department heads to ignore the pork, instead of asking for line-item veto to do, essentially, the same thing in a more problematic way.

CRS has said that over 95% of all earmarks are not written into law but merely reported on. The President could choose to save the funds ordinarily spent and not overeach his authority.

Utah's, U.S. Senators are silent on some proposed legislation to take care of this problem, S.2265: The Pork Barrel Reduction Act.

The efficacy of the above bill and others are considered by CRS here.

Hat tip: RealClearPolitics: Robert Novak