While the House passed earmark disclosure provisions in its initial rules package in January, a stronger proposal for earmark disclosure passed by the Senate as part of a larger lobbying and ethics reform bill has languished for months. Despite the delay, recent rumors of possible action on the companion House ethics and lobbying reform bill have renewed hope the stronger Senate language on earmarks will eventually be adopted in both chambers. On Jan. 5, the Senate passed S. 1, the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2007. The bill contains key earmark reform measures that require disclosure of all spending earmarks and targeted tax benefits, the identity of members requesting them, and an explanation of their "essential governmental purpose." In addition, the bill requires earmarks' sponsors to certify that neither they nor their spouses had a personal financial interest in the item and that all this information be made available in a searchable format on the Internet at least 48 hours before a vote. The last requirement was added to the Senate version through an amendment offered by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and is the key difference between the Senate and House on earmark disclosure issues. Despite it being a high priority for the House, it has been months since the Senate passed its lobbying and ethics bill, and there is still no House version. Media outlets have once again reported that House leaders plan to introduce their own version this week and move it quickly to the floor sometime during the first two weeks in May. Because the House passed a rule change about earmark disclosure, but the Senate chose to enact its provisions on earmarks through legislation, the Senate still does not have any earmark disclosure requirements with the appropriations season fast approaching. In response to this, over the last two weeks, DeMint has tried to introduce his earmark disclosure language as a stand-alone Senate rule (S Res 123), but was met with objections from Sens. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Robert C. Byrd (D-WV). After DeMint's attempts, Byrd, along with appropriations committee ranking member Thad Cochran (R-MS), sent out a press release applying a version of DeMint's language to appropriations committee guidelines. However, the Byrd/Cochran proposal proved unacceptable to DeMint because it lacked a sufficient enforcement mechanism in the full Senate to ensure appropriations committees "adopt disclosure." Further, there is no requirement in the Byrd/Cochran proposal to make earmark lists searchable online and no requirement that earmark information be made public before consideration of the bill. Because of objections to adopting DeMint's language as a straight Senate rule, it appears disclosure advocates and the general public will have to wait until the House begins work on its version of the lobbying and ethics reform bill for a more rigorous earmark disclosure system to be made accessible to the public.