House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) speaks March 11 about legislation related to gun control and violence. Lawmakers are bringing back congressional earmarks. | Photo via House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Facebook
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) speaks March 11 about legislation related to gun control and violence. Lawmakers are bringing back congressional earmarks. | Photo via House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Facebook
They're back.
Support for congressional earmarks that make it easier to fund pet projects emerged in both parties, the Washington Examiner reported in March.
House Democrats were first to restore earmarks in February, and this month, Republicans voted to lift their ban on them as well, the Examiner reported.
For more than a decade, there was bipartisan opposition to earmarks.
Former President Barack Obama campaigned against them in 2008, citing the "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska that was never completed, the Examiner said.
Some Republican House members have argued that if Democrats accept earmarks and don't, the Biden administration will make the districts' funding decisions.
"I think members here know what's most important about what's going on in their district, not Biden," House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) told reporters, the Examiner reported. "I think members want to have a say in their own district."
However, in a Feb. 24 statement, The Conservative Action Project came out against resuming earmarks.
"We urge all congressional Republicans to oppose this effort," the group said. "The wide-spread practice of earmarks was corrupting. Earmarks were used to buy and sell votes and reward favors. Earmarks brought discredit on the House and Senate and ultimately led to several members of Congress being convicted on corruption charges."
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and other House members urge Republicans to pledge not to accept earmarks.
"Make no mistake: these will be used as currency for votes as Democrat leadership buys off moderates who do not support their party's radical policy agenda," Roy alleged, The Hill reported. "This chamber has already made it clear that it is no longer the People's House in any true sense, but consolidating even more power in party leadership would be another institutional embarrassment on a list that's already too long."
In 2018, President Trump said Congress should consider "going back to a form of earmarks," NBC reported.
The current system "really lends itself to not getting along," Trump said.
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