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The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a longtime defender of the Congressional authority over federal spending, said on Monday that he would support a proposed ban on earmarks, the lawmaker-directed spending items, in the next Congress.
Mr. McConnell, in his opening speech at the start of the lame-duck session, announced that he was changing his position on earmarks to demonstrate to voters and to his colleagues that he was now firmly committed to reducing government spending.
“I have thought about these things long and hard over the past few weeks,” Mr. McConnell said. “I’ve talked with my members. I’ve listened to them. Above all, I have listened to my constituents. And what I’ve concluded is that on the issue of Congressional earmarks, as the leader of my party in the Senate, I have to lead first by example.”
Mr. McConnell nonetheless made clear that he still believed that earmarks were not necessarily synonymous with wasteful spending. “Make no mistake,” he said. “I know the good that has come from the projects I have helped support throughout my state.”
“But,” he continued, “there is simply no doubt that the abuse of this practice has caused Americans to view it as a symbol of the waste and out-of-control spending that every Republican in Washington is determined to fight. And unless people like me show the American people that we’re willing to follow through on small or even symbolic things, we risk losing them on our broader efforts to cut spending and rein in government.”
House Republican leaders have scheduled a vote on Tuesday for their conference to consider a self-imposed ban on earmarks for the 112th Congress, which begins in January. Mr. McConnell said he would back that effort and hold a similar vote among Senate Republicans.
“Today, I am announcing that I will join the Republican leadership in the House in support of a moratorium on earmarks in the 112th Congress,” he said.
Mr. McConnell said he still had doubts about any step that might increase the authority of the executive branch over federal spending. The Constitution, of course, bestows the power of the purse upon Congress.
“I’m not wild about turning over more spending authority to the executive branch,” Mr. McConnell said. “But I have come to share the view of most Americans that our nation is at a crossroads; that we will not be able to secure the kind of future we want for our children and grandchildren unless we act, and act quickly.”
He added, “Banning earmarks is another small but important symbolic step we can take to show that we’re serious, another step on the way to serious and sustained cuts in spending and to the debt.”
Defenders of the Congressional appropriations process, who had counted Mr. McConnell among their ranks until Monday, point out that earmarks account for just three-10ths of 1 percent of federal spending and that most of the spending items reflect important priorities in lawmakers’ home states and districts.
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Sen. Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate and a longtime member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced Monday that he will support a ban on earmarks, or pork barrel projects, in the 112th Congress. McConnell has long defended the practice, in which a member of Congress sends federal money to a specific project, [...]
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