Obama and McCaskill

WASHINGTON — To some, it’s a time-honored method deployed by veteran legislators to steer much-needed projects back home.

To others, it’s a sneaky way to lard up appropriation bills with pork.

However you look at the practice of earmarking legislation, look for less of it in the new Congress sworn in today.

President-elect Barack Obama, warning today of a $1 trillion budget deficit next year, said he’ll abide no earmarks in the massive stimulus legislation being riveted together.

“We are going to ban all earmarks, the process by which individual members insert pet projects without review,” said Obama, who made over $700 million in earmark requests as an Illinois senator.

“We are going to stop talking about government reform and we’re actually going to start executing,” Obama added.

Later, Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) echoed those sentiments in a letter to Senate leaders.

McCaskill, a former state auditor and a budget hawk, called for  ”earmark-free” stimulus legislationand along with extra money for the Government Accountability Office and inspector generals in federal agencies to ride herd over the spending.

“The unprecedented size and nature of this economic recovery package call for increased oversight and transparency,” McCaskill wrote.

There was even more on the earmark front. The Senate and House Appropriation Committees today announced earmark reforms for the new Congress, including a requirement that members post earmark requests on their Web sites.

Taxpayers for Common Sense, the advocacy group that has pushed to do away with earmarking, welcomed the announcement but noted that what follows will be lists in 535 places, rather than one.