House Republicans today agreed to a sweeping moratorium on all funding requests for pet projects, known as earmarks.

The move, approved in a closed-door meeting, is an escalation of efforts by Democrats and Republicans to claim the higher ground on ethics in advance of November's midterm congressional elections. But it also marks aggressive action to clamp down on a controversial practice that critics argue has opened the door to corruption by encouraging lobbyists seeking earmarks for their clients to donate campaign money to lawmakers.

The Republican ban is not permanent but a one-year moratorium on inserting the special projects into spending bills, The Associated Press reports.

The GOP decision comes a day after the Democrats who control the House announced a ban on earmarks directed to private companies. Democrats said they still would allow lawmakers to direct billions in federal spending to nonprofit and government entities, such as universities.

In a statement today, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said:

For millions of Americans, the earmark process in Congress has become a symbol of a broken Washington. Today House Republicans took an important step toward showing the American people we're serious about reform by adopting an immediate, unilateral ban on all earmarks. But the more difficult battle lies ahead, and that's stopping the spending spree in Washington that is saddling our children and grandchildren with trillions of dollars in debt. Only then will we have succeeded in bringing fundamental change to the way Congress spends taxpayers' money.

As we reported in today's paper, how much the new rules will reduce earmark spending is unclear. Within hours of Wednesday's announcement by top Democrats, the Senate's top appropriator, Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, voiced opposition.

Earmark foes in the Senate are calling for action in that chamber.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he would offer an amendment today to ban all earmarks "until our budget is balanced and we've eliminated our massive deficit."

Updated at 2:15 p.m. ET: Steve Ellis, a vocal earmark critic at the nonprofit Taxpayers for Common Sense, said the moves by both parties in the House could reduce the normal "deluge" of earmark requests by individual lawmakers to a "medium size stream."

There were 1,208 earmarks worth $1 billion solely sponsored by House Republicans in the current federal fiscal year, Ellis' group found. Democrats said lawmakers directed about 1,000 earmarks worth $1.7 billion to private companies this year, a practice now banned by their new rule. Together, the changes could add up to a "pretty substantial whack" on earmarks, Ellis said.

Why all the rush to change the rules? Earmark requests from House members are due Friday to the House Appropriations Committee.

(Posted by Fredreka Schouten)