Limited or not, the use of “earmarks” has been abused by members of Congress for way too long and in some cases used as a form of extortion to get the votes needed – PB/TK
One man’s plan to fix Congress: Bring back earmarks – By Jon Ward May 1 2017
President Trump voiced displeasure with congressional gridlock over the weekend and criticized “archaic rules” in both the Senate and House for holding up his agenda.
But as the House tries to revive its repeal and replacement of Obamacare this week, some in Congress maintain that one way to overcome dysfunction and to help the president pass key legislation is to do something that might seem counterintuitive: Bring back earmarks.
Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., said that if Republicans had restored a limited form of earmarks right after the election, the House might have already passed a health care bill and be on its way to tax reform. In 2010, after Republicans gained control of the House, they banned the practice of allowing members of Congress to set aside money for projects in their districts because the process had been abused.
By last November, however, there were enough votes to bring earmarks back, Rooney told Yahoo News. Yet he didn’t push for a vote because House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., asked him to hold off.
“I was asked to sort of let this percolate for a while. We would address it in the first quarter, and then Paul asked if we could push it to the second quarter because we had health care and everything going on,” Rooney said.
Rooney remains hopeful the issue will be voted on in the next few months, but said he regrets he didn’t push harder last year.
“There is a part of me that thinks about the fact that if I had insisted on a vote back in [November], it would have passed, we might have gotten s— for it for a week, but we wouldn’t even be talking about it right now. Members would be requesting what they need in their districts. And health care may have passed,” Rooney said.
Continue to yahoo.news.com article: https://www.yahoo.com/news/one-mans-plan-fix-congress-bring-back-earmarks-223038605.html
