[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14274-14275]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                EARMARKS

  Mr. FLAKE. Mr. President, a lot like indigestion, the desire for 
earmarks keeps coming back up. Tomorrow afternoon our colleagues in the 
House will vote on a provision to overturn the Congressional ban on 
earmarking. As someone who helped put that ban in place, I believe it 
is important to explain why it is very much still a necessity.
  Consider the following: A teapot museum in North Carolina, an indoor 
rain forest in Iowa, bridges to nowhere in Alaska, a sheep institute in 
Montana, a Woodstock museum to commemorate the 1969 concert in New 
York, a $350 million rocket launch site in Mississippi that was 
mothballed upon completion that has been derided as the ``tower to 
nowhere,'' and the weather museum in Punxsutawney, PA. These are just 
some of the more infamous pork projects that were tucked into bills in 
Congress here during the bygone earmark era.
  During the heyday of earmarking in 2006, I believe there were some 
16,000 earmarks spread around among the appropriations bills at that 
time. Members of Congress gleefully touted the outrageous manner in 
which billions of dollars were being misspent on obscure, parochial 
projects. Earmarks were the currency of what was dubbed the ``favor 
factory'' by a superlobbyist who would eventually go to jail for 
corruption.
  Earmarks were used to reward campaign donors and political supporters 
and to buy and sell the votes of politicians. The deciding vote that 
was necessary to pass ObamaCare, for example, was secured with an 
earmark for Nebraska and derided as the ``Cornhusker Kickback.''
  Republicans lost control of Congress in 2006, in part, as a result of 
the public's disgust with the corruption within the favor factory. When 
Republicans retook the House of Representatives in 2010, a moratorium 
was put on Congressional earmarking, which the Senate also adopted. 
That remains in place to this day.
  Now some Republicans in the House are pushing to reopen the favor 
factory by lifting the moratorium, promising this time it will be 
different. Taxpayers ought to know that these promises are simply 
hogwash. Having spent years fighting against earmarks, I am 
disappointed that one of the very first votes after this election will 
be on a

[[Page 14275]]

Republican-led proposal to bring back earmarks.
  Congress should instead immediately pass legislation to make the ban 
on earmarks a permanent statutory prohibition. After all, you cannot 
drain the swamps by feeding the alligators pork. With our national debt 
approaching $20 trillion, taxpayers expect Congress to focus on cutting 
wasteful and unnecessary spending instead of pigging out at the trough.
  One of the worst parts of earmarks is that we spend our time here 
when we are earmarking not providing oversight for the massive 
appropriations bills that get passed. That is the worst part of it. We 
spend time doling out what amounts to a small portion of the Federal 
budget, but it takes so much time and effort from Members and their 
staffs just to secure that small bit of money that we are not spending 
the time we should providing oversight on the rest of the budget. That 
is the biggest crime of earmarks.
  Instead of bringing them back, I hope that we will actually pass a 
statutory prohibition that will remain.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.

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