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Congress still playing fast and loose with earmarks »

Posted by: Aidenag 2 years, 6 months ago

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As the House Appropriations Committee met last week to consider four massive spending bills, something was missing: congressional "earmarks." Long dismissed as pork, earmarks had more than quadrupled under the Republican-controlled Congress. By some estimates, lawmakers were quietly adding nearly $19 billion a year in special projects.

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Aidenag

Photographer by day, news junkie by night. My main areas of interest are politics and the environment.

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Comments: 4

anioklyComment has been removed: User banned.
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nostalgia
June 11, 2007, 6:21 a.m.
The system they have set up is outrageous
"I don't want anyone to misunderstand," said Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., who as chairman of the House interior appropriations subcommittee. "There will be earmarks when we get to conference."
This will "ensure that earmarks added to the spending bills can't be challenged. The final version of an appropriations bill can't be amended when it comes to the House floor; members have to vote either yes or no."
Combined with what John Fund reported in the WSJ
The Congressional Research Service is helping its masters hide wasteful spending
"the scorekeeper on earmarks, the CRS - a publicly funded, nonpartisan federal agency- has suddenly announced it will no longer respond to requests from members of Congress on the size, number or background of earmarks."
Great system - don't report them and can't challenge them!