Tag: earmarks

Congressional Lame Duck Quackery

Commentary There is little Republicans and Democrats in Congress agree on these days, but spending (and borrowing) money is as nonpartisan as it gets. House Democrats apparently have decided to leave their majority with a spending spree. They’ll do it the way they usually do. In a script familiar to an extortionist and to the…


Biden Seeks $500 Million Earmark for Political Allies’ Pandemic Preparedness Group

Four key House Republicans are questioning a $500 million earmark sought by President Joe Biden for an international group headquartered in Oslo, Norway, and led in the United States by political appointees of former President Barack Obama. The $500 million would go to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation (CEPI), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO),…


Earmarks Include Big-Ticket Spending on Environment and Climate

With the return of earmarks after a decade-long moratorium, Democrats and Republicans alike have dedicated significant discretionary spending to projects advertised as protecting the environment. The Epoch Times examined a Bipartisan Policy Center spreadsheet on earmarks, also referred to as Congressionally directed spending, from the March omnibus bill. The largest single environmental earmark is also…


EXCLUSIVE: House Freedom Caucus Members Got Earmarks Despite Caucus’s Past Opposition

Data from the Bipartisan Policy Center reveal that congressmen in the House Freedom Caucus requested earmarks in last month’s omnibus bill—a move at odds with the conservative caucus’s critical previous statements on earmarks, but possibly in line with private discussions among its members. “Earmarks are the currency of corruption. The @freedomcaucus opposes earmarks, whether in…


Senate Appropriations GOPers Lead Congressional Return to Pork Barrel Earmarks

Nine of the 16 Senate Republicans who received earmarks in 2022 are members of the upper chamber’s appropriations committee and, despite being in the minority, they got twice as much pork as their Democratic colleagues on that powerful panel. The nine appropriations Republicans gained fewer total earmarks, trailing the 13 earmarking Democrats on the committee 743…


Congress Falls Off Wagon, Leaps Back Into the Pork Barrel With $9.6 Billion in New Earmarks

News Analysis Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) earned his “Dr. No” nickname in the U.S. Senate with his determined opposition to earmarks, which he called “the gateway drug for federal spending addiction” that hooks so many senators and representatives. Thanks largely to Coburn’s exposure of infamous earmarks like Alaska’s “Bridge to Nowhere,” Congress in 2011 banned…


Congress Falls Off Wagon, Leaps Back Into Pork Barrel With $9.6 Billion in New Earmarks

News Analysis The late Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) earned his “Dr. No” nickname in the U.S. Senate with his determined opposition to earmarks, which he called “the gateway drug for federal spending addiction” that hooks so many senators and representatives. Largely because of Coburn’s exposure of infamous earmarks such as Alaska’s “Bridge to Nowhere,” Congress…


‘Read the Bill’ Petition Calls on Congress to Wait 72 Hours Before Adopting Spending Bills

It took five months for the $1.5 trillion federal appropriations bill to surface after the United States’ fiscal year began Oct. 1, but only hours for the U.S. House—and less than a day for the U.S. Senate—to adopt it on March 9 and 10. The massive omnibus package is a continuing resolution, not a budget,…


Budd Amendment Would Strip 1,474 Earmarks Worth $5.6 Billion from House Infrastructure Bill

Rep. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) introduced an amendment to House Democrats’ “INVEST in America Surface Transportation and Infrastructure Act” that would strip out $5.6 billion worth of earmarks sought by members of both political parties. “Taxpayers across the country are getting their first look at what Washington is like in the new earmark era. It’s not…


More Hill Republicans Voted Against Wasteful Spending in 2020, But Supported Earmarks

Congressional Republicans voted much more strongly against wasteful federal spending in the months leading up to the 2020 election than they did in 2019, according to data compiled by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW). Many of the same Republicans in the House, however, voted earlier this year to support a Democratic proposal to restore earmarks,…