Following the midterm elections, returning members of Congress and newly-elected members alike turn their focus to serving in the 116th Congress. Protecting the interests of their voters and of their constituents more broadly is central to doing so. This includes protecting their constituents’ wallets and ensuring effective and honest use of their federal tax dollars.

While Congress as a whole has spent its constituents into an additional $9 trillion in debt in the past eight-and-a-half-years, bringing today’s national debt to more than $21.5 trillion, it has at least done one thing right to protect taxpayers’ wallets. The ban on what are called “earmarks,” or requests by individual members to secure federal funding for local projects or initiatives, has stood strong, having been renewed multiple times since the House Republican Conference first passed it in March 2010.