Sunflower State News

 Republican lawmakers in the United States House of Representatives seem to have updated their moral books again, this time in reference to the decades-old practice of earmarking.

Congress banned earmarking, the practice of requesting funds for a legislator's district through a public request with written statements on why the request is an acceptable use of taxpayer funds, in 2011. Often referred to in a negative light as "pork barrel" spending, it circumvents the normal funds' appropriations process. 

On March 17, House Republicans voted to remove the ban on requesting earmarks after 10 years of the practice's prohibition, on the curtails of Democrats reinstating the practice after taking the majority in 2019. 

U.S. House of Representatives | File Photo

According to a March 17 article from Washington Examiner, House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) announced that the committee will be hearing community project funding requests, or earmark requests — but this time with new rules. 

Requests will reportedly be subject to new transparency standards, and only permits funds to state or local governments, or nonprofit organizations, no for-profit groups. These changes were approved and adopted in a secret ballot in early March. 

"There's a real concern about the administration directing where money goes. This doesn't add one more dollar," House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said in defense of the changes, according to the Examiner. 

"I think members here know what's most important about what's going on in their district, not Biden. I think members want to have a say in their own district," McCarthy said. 

Despite longtime opposition to the earmarking practice citing concerns of politician corruption and wasteful abandoned projects, the Examiner likened the GOP's thinking to, "If the Democrats are going to do it, we should, too."

Republican opposition still exists, though. 

“That isn't the leadership that we need. The Republican Party should be ashamed of itself for embracing earmarks when the American people are staring $30 trillion in debt," Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said in a press conference earlier this month. Roy led a group of 18 GOP lawmakers who oppose earmarks, and pledged to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that they "will not request earmarks, of the preferred euphemism of the day, 'Community Project Funding'."