Issue Position: Local Funding & Earmarks

Issue Position

The Tennessee Valley's Congressman must be multi-dimensional. He must support sound national policies (national defense, economic, NASA, highways, and the like) that directly affect our nation and North Alabama. He must also ensure the Tennessee Valley receives its fair share of funding for needed public projects.

In that vein, as a state legislator, Mo Brooks helped secure funding for the original I-565 construction and Memorial Parkway improvements (such as overpasses) in Madison County.

As a 14-year Madison County Commissioner, Mo Brooks increased his disposable budget 20-fold for capital projects in his district (road improvements, greenways, gymnasium, parks and recreation, hiking trails, schools, and the like). As a side note, and consistent with Mo Brooks' effectiveness, Mo Brooks' GOP Primary opponent ran TV ads criticizing Mo Brooks for being too good at getting earmark funds for projects in his County Commission district.

Redstone Gateway. Consistent with Mo Brooks support for Redstone Arsenal jobs and projects and Mo Brooks' priorities as a Congressman, Mo Brooks has been a strong supporter of and helped pass a Madison County Commission resolution that empowered the creation of "Redstone Gateway".

Redstone Gateway is a private/public partnership on 468 acres of Redstone Arsenal realty. It consists of 4.4 million square feet of office and/or commercial space at a $1.0+ billion cost. Redstone Gateway will be built predominantly with private funds. It is the most expensive capital improvement in Redstone Arsenal's history. The groundbreaking occurred in August 2010. This kind of public/private partnership is the best way to improve government facilities at relatively little cost to local taxpayers, with no federal funding, and without running up America's debt.

As a Congressman, Mo Brooks will continue to strive to promote his district's interests and secure funding for public projects.

It is the Constitutional duty of Congress to control the federal government's purse strings and determine proper priorities. Budgetary amendments (by whatever name) are how Congress's priorities are reflected.

Consistent with Mo Brooks' determination to procure funding for 5th Congressional District projects,

Mo Brooks took the following written positions:

Newt Gingrich's American Solutions Questionnaire

Question: Congressional leaders are considering a ban on "earmarks" which is when a member of Congress specially directs federal funding back to its state or district. Do you support banning earmarks?

Mo Brooks Answer: No

Council for Citizens Against Government Waste "No Earmark Pledge"

Mo Brooks was asked to and declined to sign the CCAGW's No Pork Pledge, which defined "earmarks" as meeting one of the following criteria:

* Requested by only one chamber of Congress

* Not specifically authorized

* Not competitively awarded

* Not requested by the President

* Greatly exceeds the President's budget request or the previous year's funding

* Not the subject of congressional hearings

* Serves only a local or special interest

Mo Brooks will not defer total control over America's defense, NASA or any other part of the budget to President Barack Obama (as Citizens Against Government Waste's pledge requires).
Contract From America Pledge

Mo Brooks agreed to the Contract From America pledge depicted on the first page of the Contract From America web site. This pledge states, in full:

1. Protect the Constitution

2. Reject Cap & Trade

3. Demand a Balanced Budget

4. Enact Fundamental Tax Reform

5. Restore Fiscal Responsibility & Constitutionally Limited Government

6. End Runaway Government Spending

7. Defund, Repeal, & Replace Government-run Health Care

8. Pass an "All-of-the-Above" Energy Policy

9. Stop the Pork

10. Stop the Tax Hikes

With respect to Item #9, Mo Brooks agreed to stop "pork" but disagrees that spending on highways, national defense, NASA, TVA and other federal government responsibilities constitutes "pork". More specifically, the Contract From America never restricts, bans or even mentions the word "earmark".

There is another copy of the "Contract From America" pledge further back in the website that also does not ban earmarks. In addition to the ten provisions stated above, it displays polling data concerning each Contract item. For example, after the "Stop the Pork" pledge, there is polling data showing that 55.47% of those polled agreed with permitting earmarks when there is a balanced budget and 2/3 of Congress votes to support the earmark.

To the extent the polling data might be misconstrued to be a part of the Contract From America, it does not reflect Mo Brooks' position because Mo Brooks prefers a Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendment to force Congress to evaluate the merits of each earmark in the context of limited revenues and other demands for federal government expenditures.

Source