Among the $372 million for Hawai'i in the federal omnibus spending bill are projects funded by earmarks — those controversial special funding requests used by lawmakers to direct money to their states and districts. The money will go for everything from agriculture to astronomy to Native Hawaiian programs.

Hawai'i's delegation takes pride in its prowess in collecting earmarks, but it's not alone. There are more than 8,500 earmarks in the $410 billion bill, signed by President Obama yesterday.

Earmarks have been rightly criticized by government watchdogs and Obama himself, even as he approved nearly $8 billion of them.

"This piece of legislation must mark an end to the old way of doing business and the beginning of a new era of responsibility and accountability," he said.

Well, let the new era begin.

For too long, earmarks have been included in spending bills with little oversight — outside the normal appropriations process, at the last minute, often for questionable reasons. Yet for years, calls for change have met resistance from Congress, which jealously guards its power of the purse.

But with confidence in the economy sinking like a stone, Obama and congressional leaders promised to reform the earmark system, making it more transparent and accountable to taxpayers.

They include posting all earmark requests from lawmakers on their Web sites and making them open to public hearings; stricter scrutiny of earmarks going to private companies; and giving the executive branch 20 days to review any earmarks.

These proposed reforms are welcome and long overdue. And it's a better solution than banning earmarks entirely. A lawmaker should be able to support worthy projects in the district he or she represents.

It just needs to be done in the light of day.