U.S. Senator Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, wants to “ban all earmarks” from both chambers of Congress.
The Pennsylvania senator introduced a bipartisan bill in November co-sponsored with Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, that would essentially prevent members of Congress from introducing earmarks.
However, the Senate voted against passing the bill last week with a 59-40 majority vote. Mr. Toomey blames Senate Democrats for not passing the bill.
Mr. Toomey made an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Wednesday, in an effort to further make a push for members of both chambers of Congress to reconsider the bill.
The bill defines earmarks specifically as “any congressionally directed spending item, limited tax benefit, or limited tariff benefit” that are used for specific projects in a specific state or locality.
“I’ve got a bill with Claire McCaskill that would ban all earmarks. Earmarks are at the heart of the story that The Washington Post has written about and certainly it does create the impression that there are members that may have used earmarks to feather their own nest,” said Mr. Toomey.
The Washington Post article he refers to was published on Monday, and shows that since 2008, a total of 33 members of Congress have directed more than $300 million in earmarks towards projects that fall within two miles of “the lawmakers’ own property.”
Mr. Toomey’s reference to lawmakers feathering “their own nest,” was his way of stating that members of Congress could be using earmarks to increase their property value.
That gives the impression that members of Congress are using earmarks to direct federal spending to projects that would specifically benefit areas where they live, regardless of the importance of the project.
“We know in the past this happened, Duke Cunningham is in jail today because he was convicted of this. So we’ve got a temporary moratorium but it can be subverted, it is only in place for another year. I think we should institute a legislative ban,” said Mr. Toomey Wednesday.
Randall “Duke” Cunningham is currently serving an eight year prison term on charges that he accepted bribes that influenced his votes on certain legislation.
The moratorium has delayed action on the bill, but Mr. Toomey stated Wednesday that he plans on introducing an amendment to a highway bill that the Senate will vote on this week. The amendment would include provisions from his “Earmark Elimination Act” that was voted down in the Senate last week.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican stated Tuesday that he will introduce an amendment to the STOCK act that would include provisions from Mr. Toomey’s bill. The House will take a vote on the STOCK act this week.
The STOCK act is a congressional insider trading bill that would make it illegal for members of Congress to use nonpublic information to make investment decisions on the open stock market.
“Efforts to prohibit the use of privileged information by members of Congress for personal financial gain would fall short if earmarking were not banned toward this same end,” said Mr. Flake in a statement Wednesday.
It remains unclear whether the House will include the amendment banning earmarks as a part of the STOCK act.
