Democrats Want To Bring Earmarks Back As Way To Break Gridlock In Congress

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House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., supports bringing earmarks back with limits.





J. Scott Applewhite/AP



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J. Scott Applewhite/AP



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In the past decade, both parties have attempted and failed to reinstate earmarks primarily due to concerns about how it would play politically. Currently, there is broad support for it among House Democratic leaders, including Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., and incoming House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut. «It is a dynamic environment and I think we are in a better position now to move forward in this area, she told NPR.

Steve Ellis runs Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group that helped expose earmark abuses. «House Democrats can push as much as they want but they’re going to have to have a dance partner in the Senate and they’re going to have to have a dance partner with Republicans, he said, «It’s one of these things where it just won’t stand politically and optically if they don’t all jump together.

Senate Republicans voted to permanently ban earmarks in their internal party rules just last year, but control of the Senate won’t be clear until after a pair of Georgia special elections in early January. Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt, a long-time appropriator, made it clear the Senate is not currently rushing to join with House Democrats. «I don’t think senators are thinking about this much until it’s clear what the House really intends to do, he said.

Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, supports bringing back earmarks and said, in private, the idea is quite popular. «Oh yes, there’s very quiet support for it among Republicans. There will be some opposed but they don’t have to have earmarks if they don’t like them.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., both appropriators who have embraced earmarks in the past, haven’t yet taken a position on this round to revive them.

Former President Barack Obama opposed earmarks, famously pledging to veto any bill that came to his desk that included them. President-elect Joe Biden also hasn’t weighed in yet, but Biden says he wants to bring Republicans and Democrats together, and advocates say earmarks is one way to do it.