March 11, 2008
Clinton and Obama Join Growing Push for Earmarks Moratorium
All three of the leading presidential candidates now support a proposal in Congress to ban earmarked projects for one year, and political momentum is gathering in both parties behind the idea.
Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama endorsed on Monday a Republican proposal that the Senate is expected to vote on this week. Sen. John McCain is a long-time foe of earmarks and favors their abolition.
In addition, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to announce this week a one-year moratorium on earmarks in the House, CongressDaily reports.
A moratorium could defuse a potentially troublesome issue for Democrats. Republicans have criticized them as too eager to support earmarks, the controversial, noncompetitive grants directed by lawmakers to colleges and other favored constituents in their home states. (Republicans, of course, hardly have clean hands on the issue. They lost control of Congress in 2006 partly for supporting big increases in earmarks.)
The Democratic-led Congress adopted a one-year moratorium on most earmarks for the 2007 fiscal year. But lawmakers of both parties resumed providing earmarks in the appropriations provided for the 2008 fiscal year, which ends in September.
In a statement on Monday, Senator Obama said: “I have come to believe that the system is broken. We can no longer accept a process that doles out earmarks based on a member of Congress’ seniority, rather than the merit of the project.”
Jeffrey Brainard | Posted on Tuesday March 11, 2008 | PermalinkComments
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Viaduct?
Vy not.
— marci Mar 11, 06:53 PM #