In the very first session of Congress this year, the newly Democratic-led House of Representatives passed a resolution requiring members to disclose the earmarks they have placed in spending bills. It would identify what is was for, how much it is for and which House member requested it. This was hailed as fulfilling a promise House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made to “bring transparency and openness to the budget process and to the use of earmarks.” Apparently the celebration came far too early.

Not only does House Speaker Pelosi not want to reveal any earmarks she’s added to the current spending bills, she doesn’t even want you to say the word “earmark.” She had this to say to her colleagues on the floor:

If I just might direct the record to another place, why don’t we just leave this room today forgetting the word earmark? This is legislatively directed spending as opposed to executive spending.

CNN has reported that they asked all the House members to inform them of the earmarks, erm… legislatively directed spending requests they have submitted into the pending bill. The result of the new transparency is that only 31 out of 435 members, just seven percent, provided the information. 68 members flatly refused to provide the information and the rest just ignored the request. Even Nancy Pelosi’s staff said the they would not reveal her earmarks.

So when the House Speaker says she’s going to bring a new era of transparency and openness, what she means is renaming earmarks so they don’t sound so politically beneficial, and then declining to reveal what ones she’s responsible for.