Senate Republicans took a major step yesterday to protect taxpayer dollars from earmarks - the shady practice of lawmakers directing money into pet projects in their state or congressional district. The adopted rule, spearheaded by Senator Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska), places a permanent ban on pork-barrel spending. NTU has long been a champion for ending this practice and we commend Senator Sasse and the Republican conference for achieving a hardfought, but necessary outcome.
While they only constitute a small percentage of overall federal spending, earmarks nonetheless funded a significant number of wasteful projects and, for some lawmakers, proved to be an irresistible opportunity for corruption and influence peddling. Take for instance the infamous “bridge to nowhere,” which was a special earmark that used $223 million in taxpayer funds for the construction of a bridge between a small Alaskan town and an even smaller island that housed a local airport. Even though this is just one example, there are literally thousands of similar cases of this irresponsible spending. In fact, our friends over at Citizens Against Government Waste calculated that the 11 appropriations bills in 2006 contained $29 billion in earmarked spending for 10,000 projects.
The move by Senate Republicans is a welcome step in their quest to get special interests out of the legislative process. Now, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives should follow the Senate’s lead and end this backroom practice once and for all.