President Obama's weekly address

In this week’s address, President Obama calls for Congress to address the issue of earmarks -- items inserted into spending bills without adequate review. The President has time and again called for new limitations on earmarks, and the Obama Administration has put in place higher standards of transparency, including www.earmarks.gov. This week, the Administration updated www.earmarks.gov with more information about where last year’s earmarks were actually spent, and made it easier to look up members of Congress and the earmarks they fought for. In these challenging times, working across the aisle to address this issue will signal the government’s commitment to fiscal responsibility, shine a light on a Washington habit that wastes billions of taxpayer dollars, and take a step towards restoring public trust.