Taxpayer watchdog groups are urging President Bush to stop federal agencies from funding earmarks appropriated in previous fiscal years.

The House-passed continuing resolution contains no new earmarks and says agencies have no legal requirement to fund earmarks from FY06.  It also requires agencies to submit spending plans to Congress.

Alarmed by reports that the Energy Department and possibly other agencies will nonetheless honor preveious funding requests by lawmakers, 11 groups including Americans for Prosperity, Americans for Tax Reform and Citizens Against Government Waste wrote to Bush today. "In the spirit of earmark reform and to prevent any appearance of impropriety, we urge you to commit each agency to refrain from including any grants or awards not based on a competitive-bidding or formula-driven process in their spending plans," the letter states.

Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., wrote Energy Secretary Bodman to urge him not to fund the earmarks, noting President Bush's opposition to earmarks.