Recovering Earmarkers

Yesterday FreedomWorks issued a key vote on Sen. Jim DeMint’s amendment to the Defense Authorization bill that would strike the earmarks that were included not in the bill itself, but in the vast pages of committee reports.  As I’ve written before, secret earmarks, suspensions, and voice votes that avoid debate and transparency are an insult to taxpayers and their hard earned money that fund these pet projects.

Section 1002, the part of the bill that DeMint wants to remove, not only incorporates all of the secret earmarks written in committee reports – giving them the force of law even though they are not in the bill, not debated, and not voted on – it also completely circumvents the president’s Executive Order of last winter that stated federal agencies were not to spend money on earmarks that weren’t part of the statute itself.

Heritage has an excellent write up on the situation that is well worth a read.  The post contains this damning exchange that says a lot about the earmark practice:

Consider this famous 1982 exchange between Sens. William Armstrong (R-CO) and Bob Dole (R-KS):

Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. President, will the Senator tell me whether or not he wrote the committee report?
Mr. DOLE. Did I write the committee report?
Mr. ARMSTRONG. Yes.
Mr. DOLE. No; the Senator from Kansas did not write the committee report. …

Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. President, has the Senator from Kansas, the chairman of the Finance Committee, read the committee report in its entirety?
Mr. DOLE. I am working on it. It is not a bestseller, but I am working on it.
Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. President, did members of the Finance Committee vote on the committee report?
Mr. DOLE. No.
Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. President, the reason I raise the issue is not perhaps apparent on the surface, and let me just state it: … The report itself is not considered by the Committee on Finance. It was not subject to amendment by the Committee on Finance. It is not subject to amendment now by the Senate. … If there were matter within this report which was disagreed to by the Senator from Colorado or even by a majority of all Senators, there would be no way for us to change the report. I could not offer an amendment tonight to amend the committee report.

Sen. Jim DeMint isn’t the only one fighting earmarks.  Over in the House, Rep. John Kline launched Stop the Pork to continue shedding light on the process.

Speaking at the Blogger’s Briefing yesterday, Kline explained that at first he did buy into earmarks, but like many of his other colleagues soon found that there was "No merit" in the system.  Money wasn’t awarded based on the merit of a project and district to district funds had nothing to do with growth, population, or actual need.  And the lethal blend of secrecy and favoritism rampant had even landed former colleague "Duke" Cunningham (CA) in jail.

Kline went on to explain his thoughts on reforming the system.  At first he thought more transparency would shame people, but Kline soon found at his fellow legislators had no shame when it came to requests and finally concluded the system was fundamentally broken.

This was an interesting revelation.  Even the ardent anti-porker, Sen. Jim DeMint has some earmarks in his past, as do many who have recently sworn them off.  It would be easy to castigate DeMint and others as hypocrites because they don’t have a flawless record on these issues.  But as Kline and DeMint can attest – they’ve learned their lesson and since then have haven’t wavered.  We need  a lot more reformers like them on this issue.