In light of a recent attempt by Congress to bring back earmarks, a group of Republican senators sent a letter Tuesday to President Donald Trump urging him to help fight against congressional special-interest spending.
Republican Sens. Jeff Flake and John McCain of Arizona, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas, and Ben Sasse of Nebraska signed a letter to Trump that advocated against congressional special-interest spending—commonly referred to as earmarking.
“We respectfully urge you to make it clear that you will veto any bill Congress sends to you containing earmarks within the legislative text or the accompanying report,” the senators wrote to Trump.
“We look forward to working with you to make Washington more accountable and stop wasteful spending where it starts, which is often right here in Congress,” they added.
The GOP senators mentioned the continually growing national debt as a major reason to bring “fiscal sanity to the federal budget” and kill any attempt by Congress to bring back pork-barrel spending.
The Senate Republicans also noted that the stoppage of earmarks is a chance for Trump to fulfill his promise of ending corrupt expenditures in the nation’s capital.
“Fondly described as a ‘favor factory’ by a lobbyist convicted of exchanging gifts for government grants, earmarks represent the pay-to-play culture you have pledged to end,” the senators wrote.
During the campaign, Trump harped on this point, saying, “It is time to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C.”
“This is why I’m proposing a package of ethics reforms to make our government honest once again,” he added.
The GOP lawmakers mentioned Ronald Reagan as an example of how a Republican president can fight against earmarks.
“President Reagan vetoed a highway bill in 1987 because it was larded up with 152 earmarks,” the senators wrote.
In November, the Republican debate over earmarks started to heat up again. House Republicans sponsored two amendments to bring back congressional earmarking during a closed-door meeting. However, after receiving criticism from fiscal conservatives, House Speaker Paul Ryan decided to wait and hold off the decision until it could be decided in public.
In their letter to Trump, the senators referenced the Republican legislators who are attempting to rebrand earmarks and bring them back into the congressional budget, saying, “Earmark proponents are trying to reassure that this time will be different, promising fewer projects and even rebranding them as ‘congressionally-directed spending.’”
Earmarks served as an example of wasteful spending in the GOP-controlled Congress of the early 2000s, as some Republican lawmakers embraced federal spending to advance their own interests.
While earmarks were officially banned in 2011, pork-barrel spending has still managed to survive on Capitol Hill, according to a previous op-ed from The Daily Signal.
