Senate Won’t Allow Earmarks in Spending Bills

February 1, 2011, 4:55 PM

By CARL HULSE

Bowing to the inevitable, Senator Daniel K. Inouye, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced Tuesday that the panel would not allow pet spending projects known as earmarks to be included in this year’s appropriations bills.

Mr. Inouye, the nine-term Hawaii Democrat and an expert at steering money to his island state, conceded he did not have much choice since the Republican majority in the House had instituted its own ban and President Obama had also said he would veto any spending measure that contained earmarks.

“The handwriting is clearly on the wall,” Mr. Inouye said. “The president has stated unequivocally that he will veto any legislation containing earmarks, and the House will not pass any bills that contain them. Given the reality before us, it makes no sense to accept earmark requests that have no chance of being enacted into law.”

The decision clearly pained the chairman and he suggested he would resurrect the issue for another look once lawmakers of both parties became tired of not having the ability to direct spending to popular projects in their districts and states.

“Next year, when the consequences of this decision are fully understood by the members of this body, we will most certainly revisit this issue and explore ways to improve the earmarking process,” Mr. Inouye said.

The decision eliminates one complication from this year’s difficult spending debates, but the Democrat-controlled Senate and Republican-run House have different ideas on where Congress should end up on spending both in terms of the total amount and the priorities.

Congressional earmarks have been the subject of a long struggle between senior lawmakers who favor them and other lawmakers and watchdog groups who argue that they increase federal spending and breed corruption. The impact on the federal deficit is negligible, but winning a total ban on such spending is an important symbolic victory for earmark opponents.

“A one-two punch from Congressional Republicans and the president has brought an end to earmarks — at least temporarily,” said Ryan Alexander, the president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. “No more political muscle trumping project merit. This should usher in a new era for accountability and oversight on federal spending, not just in earmarked accounts, but budget-wide.”

Lawmakers are always searching for ways around such restrictions and will no doubt still try to influence spending decisions outside the formal definition of earmarks.