The Federalist has obtained the proposed GOP conference rules, allowing for earmarks, which truly conservative lawmakers call the 'currency of corruption.'
Earmarks that let Congress members direct money to local projects will resume over objections from some Ohio Republicans
Updated Mar 15, 2021;
Posted Mar 15, 2021
Ohio members of Congress regularly earmarked money for maintenance and land acquisition expenses at Cuyahoga Valley National Park when Congress allowed the practice. (Thomas Ondrey/The Plain Dealer)The Plain Dealer
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WASHINGTON, D.C. - A proposed “Bridge to Nowhere” that would have connected a small Alaskan city with a nearby island became a focus of outrage more than a decade ago over a process called “earmarking” that let Congress members request federal dollars for local projects.
Earmarks Are Still a Bad Idea | Opinion Ken Buck
, Republican congressman, Colorado On 3/11/21 at 7:30 AM EST
Bad ideas in Washington, D.C. never really die. They just go on hiatus for a while and sometimes get a name change or a refreshed image. Earmarks are the latest bad idea Congress is attempting to bring back into circulation.
Earmarks are single-line-item spending for pet projects that were wisely banned in 2010 after a series of high-profile corruption stories. Who can forget the famous Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska? The proposed bridge would have connected Ketchikan, Alaska to Gravina Island, and would have cost an estimated total of $398 million. The project was popular among the Alaskan congressional delegation, but was correctly understood by the American people as a waste of taxpayer funding.
35 GOP Senators, Representatives Blast Democrats’ Bringing Back Earmarks
Bringing back earmarks in federal spending is the worst “way to build back trust in Congress” because they are a quasi-legalized form of bribery” that “enables Washington’s spending addiction.”
That’s according to 35 Republican members of the Senate and House of Representatives who signed a March 10 letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.).
“Members want Congress to help their communities, particularly now as the pandemic exposed so many inequalities and needs,” DeLauro said in a statement announcing the return. “Community Project Funding [CPF] will allow Members to put their deep, first-hand understanding of the needs of their communities to work to help the people we represent.”
After four years of a president who put America First and fought to drain the swamp in Washington, the swamp is coming back with a vengeance. House Democrats have announced