The Practice of Earmarks is Out of Control

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, many of us in this body have realized for quite a while that the practice of earmarking is out of control. When we herald the fact that we had a mere 12,000 earmarks last year, as opposed to only 15,000 a couple of years ago, we know that something is wrong.

But the exercise we went through last week was perhaps the best indication we had yet that we still have a long way to go. We authorized the Justice Department to investigate the origin of an immaculate earmark, an earmark that wasn't in either the House or Senate version of the bill, that only showed up when the President signed the legislation. The earmark was not in either the House or Senate version. Now, one would think that the discovery of an immaculate earmark would prompt an immediate congressional investigation. Instead, we waited 2 years and then authorized the Justice Department to look into it.

Mr. Speaker, we owe this great institution far better than we're giving it, from bridges to nowhere to teapot museums, to immaculate earmarks that we don't even pass, let alone scrutinize. We can do far better than this.

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