By Alan K. Ota, CQ Staff

House Democrats are discussing a plan to hijack a signature issue of the opposition party: earmarks.

Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer and senior Democratic aides said that Speaker Nancy Pelosi , other party leaders and their staffs were examining a moratorium on appropriations earmarks.

“I don’t know that that is going to happen. But we are discussing it,” said Hoyer, D-Md.

An earmark cutoff would be a dramatic change to business as usual. Incumbents would no longer be able to point to such directed spending to demonstrate a local benefit to sending them to Washington.

But it would also co-opt a GOP campaign theme and, despite the potential political handicap to Democratic incumbents, Pelosi is considering the move as a demonstration of fiscal responsibility.

The California Democrat wants infrastructure spending to be the centerpiece of a new round of economic stimulus measures that she hopes to roll out this month, and a year without earmarks would be a flashy way to free up the funds to pay for it.

Democrats often point with pride to being the party that reinstated pay-as-you-go budget rules, which require spending cuts or revenue-raising measures to offset new spending.

The rules were waived last year to enact an extension of exemptions from the alternative minimum tax (PL 110-166) and for rebates and other tax breaks in the new economic stimulus law (PL 110-185). But Pelosi has made clear that she wants to abide by the rules to pay for such goals as the $15 billion infrastructure investment package floated by Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James L. Oberstar , D-Minn.

Oberstar’s idea of using the gasoline tax to generate more money has become less appealing with prices at the pump exceeding $3 a gallon. But he was cool to banning earmarks to pay for infrastructure funding. “It sounds like it would be a crazy idea,” he said.

Earmarks are a favorite source of local project funding for members of Oberstar’s committee.

Appropriations Chairman David R. Obey , D-Wis., confirmed that he was asking House members to tell him whether they want earmarks or not, but declined to discuss whether he was engaged in discussions with Pelosi about a possible moratorium on earmarks in appropriations bills. “I’ve sent that out. But I’m not going to talk about it. I don’t have any comment,” he said.

Pelosi held an economic forum in her office Wednesday and said another gathering would be held next week to consider a range of potential sources of revenue or spending cuts to pay for infrastructure funding.

She said participants would be “specifically focusing on infrastructure, what the needs are, how we would pay for it.”

The Democrats would also talk, she said, about “some expansion of the definition of infrastructure” to include water projects, broadband deployment and school construction.

Not Just for Republicans Anymore?

Until recently, earmark moratorium talk came only from the Republican side of the aisle. Budget watchdog groups have noted that the number of earmarks grew exponentially while Republicans controlled Congress. The GOP leadership’s get-tough approach to earmarks is relatively new, and the party is still grappling with internal dissension over how far to go with it.

Conservative champions of the idea, such as Reps. Jeff Flake , R-Ariz., and Jeb Hensarling , R-Texas, were joined in recent weeks by unlikely liberal allies such as Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry A. Waxman , D-Calif.

Waxman said he told the Democratic Caucus last month that it should get on the right side of the earmarking issue. “Earmarks are completely out of control. I told everyone that I thought Democrats ought to take the position of forgoing earmarks. I took that position for myself,” he said.

The idea of curbing earmarks has been strongly opposed by some senior Democratic appropriators, including Reps. John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania and James P. Moran of Virginia.

“I don’t like the idea. We should do infrastructure and also take care of priorities,” Moran said.

‘It’s Showtime’

Republicans were quick to attack the trial balloon floated by Pelosi and her supporters.

“We would prefer to reduce spending,” said Rep. Jack Kingston , R-Ga.

Kingston has been asking Democrats to sign a discharge petition for his own plan (H Con Res 263) to temporarily ban earmarks and ask a joint select committee to develop permanent earmark restrictions.

Thomas M. Davis III of Virginia, ranking Republican on Waxman’s panel, said he was skeptical of the intentions of Pelosi, who is a former appropriator herself. “It’s showtime,’’ he said.

Minority Leader John A. Boehner , R-Ohio, had urged Pelosi to order a moratorium earlier this year, but she declined.

Zach Wamp , R-Tenn., a cosponsor of Kingston’s plan, said Republicans were unified behind the idea of a moratorium for both parties, but would probably take no unilateral action unless sought by their presidential nominee.

“If John McCain asks us not to take earmarks, Republicans would get behind that. Otherwise, I don’t think we would do that,” Wamp said.

Given the Arizona senator’s public statements on the topic, Flake said he thought it likely that McCain would try to seek a GOP-only pledge to forgo earmarks.

“He’s already said he would oppose earmarks as president. Why not start now?” Flake said.

First posted March 5, 2008 11:10 p.m.

Correction
Corrects the name of Kingston's plan to temporarily ban earmarks in the seventh to last paragraph.