House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., convinced his conference on Wednesday to drop proposals to ease the earmark ban imposed by his predecessor from a package of rules that will govern how the House operates in the next Congress.
“This process was abused for a long period of time and we need to reform the entire way that unelected bureaucrats control federal taxpayer dollars and rewrite regulations that are having a negative impact on our economy,” Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., said after his colleagues acceded to Ryan’s request.
The House Republican Conference was set to vote, in secret balloting, on two proposals to ease rules forbidding lawmakers from designating money for specific projects, generally federally funded infrastructure construction and highway building, in spending legislation.
Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., wanted to allow earmarks for Army Corps of Engineers projects while Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, reportedly wanted flexibility for all federally funded infrastructure projects.
“Today, Speaker Paul Ryan pledged to create a transparent and accountable process to restore Congress’ constitutional spending authority by the end of the first quarter of 2017,” Culberson said in a statement after Republicans privately approved a rules package that did not include his proposal.
“My colleagues and I agreed to withdraw our amendment based on the speaker’s promise because we are confident we can develop a method to handle directed congressional spending in a way that gives constituents confidence that their hard-earned tax dollars are being spent effectively.”
Lawmakers were worried about sending the wrong signal to voters who backed President-elect Trump because they want to “drain the swamp.”
Easing the earmark ban in a closed-door meeting on a secret ballot was not the first action House GOP leaders wanted to take after Republicans swept the presidential and congressional elections last week, said veteran Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson, who sits on the Appropriations Committee.
“The speaker was very wise to” not let Republicans look like they wanted to “fill the swamp back up” after Trump promised to drain it, he said.
Both proposals had wide support as lawmakers feel they have given away too much “power of the purse” to the executive branch.
“After a long debate, it was clear there’s a lot of pent up frustration with ceding spending authority to the executive branch,” a source in the room said. “Based on the comments by members, it was likely that an earmark amendment would have passed. Ultimately, the speaker stepped in and urged that we not make this decision today.”
Earmarks got a bad rap after several, high-profile examples of abuse became public between 2005-2008. Former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif., ultimately went to prison on corruption charges stemming from earmarks.
