To the editor:

Last month, I posted to my congressional Web site a list of my 2008 appropriations requests, making me one of only a handful of the 435 members of Congress to publicly disclose this information. Frankly, my colleagues in the House of Representatives advised against taking this step. They told me to sit quietly on my earmark requests, cutting off the public from the budget process and shielding myself from debate.

Keeping quiet would certainly have been the political safe ground, but I felt it would violate the public interest. So I posted the list to my Web site, hoping to promote a public discussion of the earmarking process.

I seem to have succeeded. A special interest group called the Americans for Prosperity recently called attention to a request to help fund a proposed Kansas Regional Prisons Museum. After carefully reviewing their claims, I continue to believe that the prisons museum is in the best interest of Kansas. The prison industry is vital to the economy and culture of northeast Kansas, and the museum would generate good-paying jobs in Lansing, something I believe every Kansan supports.

Although I disagree with the Americans for Prosperity’s opposition to the Regional Prisons Museum, I appreciate their joining the conversation on earmark accountability. I urge the four members of the Kansas congressional delegation who have not disclosed their appropriations requests – Rep. Todd Tiahrt, Rep. Jerry Moran, Sen. Pat Roberts and Sen. Sam Brownback – to participate in this dialogue by releasing their requests for public comment.

Rep. Nancy Boyda,

D-Kan.