For decades, Congress used earmarks to buy votes for midnight, trillion-dollar spending bills and other wasteful spending. Taxpayer dollars were wasted on things like the $223 million Bridge to Nowhere and the $50 million indoor rainforest. Several members of Congress and dozens of lobbyists were even indicted and went to prison for earmark corruption in the early 2000s. 

That’s why Republicans banned earmarks for a decade. Unfortunately, Nancy Pelosi brought them back to buy votes and waste taxpayer money. We recently learned that even though Congress stripped out her $200 million earmark for lavish hotels and a golf course in her San Francisco neighborhood, she convinced the Park Service to break their own rules and she got the $200 million anyway. Last Congress, I refused to participate in this corrupt process, and I spent a considerable amount of time arguing against earmarks. It doesn’t make sense to add fuel to out-of-control spending, further jack up our national debt, and send inflation skyrocketing.

These are some of the reasons a handful of my Republican colleagues and I took action this January to make historic changes to the House rules, including the earmark process.

Read the full article in the Craig Press here.