Within hours of being sworn in, the new leadership in the US House of Representatives tackled one of the biggest ethics concerns in Congress, earmarks. The pet projects and tax breaks for favored corporations can no longer be snuck into spending bills without a congressman’s name attached. A good way to set higher standards in government. (MCT News Service)
Do as I say?
Earmarks are spending provisions dropped into bills ââ?¬â? often anonymously, at the last minute and without public scrutiny. They were at the center of several high-profile scandals that undermined the GOP this year, when earmarks benefited special interests.
Pelosi has not been linked to any impropriety. And not all the federal funding Pelosi boasts about came from earmarks. But the presumed new House speaker has proved a champion practitioner of the earmarking process over the years.
During the last congressional session, her district received far more earmarks than a typical district, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog that tracks congressional spending.
Pelosi has helped direct tens of millions of dollars to subway and bridge projects in San Francisco. She has secured money to restore a historic schooner and convert the old San Francisco Mint into a history museum.
Citizens Against Government Waste, a critic of such pork-barrel” spending
Thanks for the article!
I had no idea there were moves made in September to require authors of some