IV 
110TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 1040 
Raising a question of the privileges of the House. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 12, 2008 
Mr. BOEHNER submitted the following resolution; which was laid on the table 
RESOLUTION 
Raising a question of the privileges of the House. 
Whereas on June 13, 2007, the publication The Politico re-
ported, ‘‘Democratic leaders gave in to Republican de-
mands that lawmakers be allowed to challenge individual 
member-requested projects from the final version of each 
appropriations bill.’’; 
Whereas on November 15, 2007, Representatives Jack King-
ston and Frank Wolf introduced H. Con. Res. 263, to es-
tablish a Joint Select Committee on Earmark Reform, 
and for other purposes; 
Whereas on March 6, 2008, The Hill reports in ‘‘Obey Criti-
cizes Kingston on earmarks’’ that ‘‘Kingston said Obey 
has been ‘very irritated’ with his push for reform.’’; 
Whereas on March 5, 2008, House Appropriations Chairman 
David Obey sent a Dear Colleague to Republican Mem-
bers stating ‘‘In light of the continuing discussion on ear-
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marks in the Republican Conference, the Appropriations 
Committee needs to determine how it would proceed.’’; 
Whereas on March 6, 2008, The Hill reports in ‘‘Task Force 
Looking Beyond Earmarks’’ that ‘‘Obey issued a memo 
to Republicans in multiple-choice format asking them to 
check one of two boxes, stating whether they believed in 
a one-year moratorium and therefore would not be sub-
mitting earmark requests, or did not believe in a morato-
rium and would be submitting requests. Obey spokes-
woman Kristin Brost said Obey called the memo his 
‘anti-hypocrisy memo, aimed at House Minority Leader 
John Boehner’s (R–Ohio) repeated calls for a morato-
rium.’ ’’; 
Whereas the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee 
Dave Obey stated in said letter: ‘‘Because it is important 
for the Committee to move ahead with bills in a timely 
fashion, I will assume that any Member not returning 
this form by March 19, 2008 wishes to see Congressional 
earmarks discontinued and will therefore be submitting 
no request for fiscal year 2009.’’; 
Whereas House Rule XXIII Clause 16, states that a Member 
may not condition the inclusion of language to provide 
funding for a congressional earmark on any vote cast by 
another Member; and 
Whereas the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, 
Dave Obey, has conditioned the receipt of an earmark 
from the Committee on Appropriations on a Member’s 
opposition to a moratorium on earmarks: Now, therefore, 
be it 
Resolved, That the Committee on Standards of Offi-
cial Conduct is directed to investigate without further 
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delay violations of House rules by Representative Dave 
Obey and report its findings and recommendations to the 
House, including a recommendation regarding the appro-
priate action for Representative Obey’s violations. 
Æ 
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