{"id":2137,"date":"2014-12-10T15:01:50","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T20:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wordpress\/?p=2137"},"modified":"2014-12-10T15:10:10","modified_gmt":"2014-12-10T20:10:10","slug":"fellow-republicans-agree-with-senator-toomeys-ban-on-wasteful-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=2137","title":{"rendered":"Fellow Republicans Agree with Senator Toomey\u2019s Ban on Wasteful Spending"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, D.C.<\/strong> \u2013 In his ongoing battle to protect taxpayers from wasteful government spending, U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) today led the Senate Republican Conference to extend its ban on earmarks, which was scheduled to expire at the end of this Congress.\u00a0Toomey applauded his colleagues\u2019 vote to extend the current earmark moratorium for another Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe American people are tired of wasteful government spending and special interest handouts,\u201d Sen. Toomey said<\/strong>.<\/strong>\u00a0 \u201cTaxpayers don\u2019t want to pay for bridges to nowhere, studies on maple syrup, or the Cowboy poetry festival.\u00a0 My Conference rule, which was adopted today, says that the Republicans will not request earmarks.\u00a0 I am pleased that even before the new Congress begins, the Republican majority is working to protect taxpayers and make government more effective and efficient.\u00a0This is an improvement but we have to keep working toward a permanent ban.\u201d<\/p>\n

Past experience shows that the prevalence of earmarks can grow exponentially when left unchecked. According to the watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste, in 1998 Congress approved about 2,100 earmark projects at a total cost of $13.2 billion.\u00a0 By 2006 — the height of the earmark binge — these numbers ballooned to nearly 10,000 earmarks that cost taxpayers about $29 billion.\u00a0 Over the years, earmarks were used to fund such dubious projects as the infamous \u201cBridge to Nowhere\u201d in Alaska, an indoor rainforest, and a teapot museum.<\/p>\n

The language of Sen.\u00a0Toomey\u2019s Conference rule is below:<\/p>\n

\u201cResolved, that it is the policy of the Republican Conference that no Member shall request a congressionally directed spending item, limited tax benefit, or limited tariff benefit, as such items are used in Rule XLIV of the Standing Rules of the Senate for the 114th<\/sup> <\/em>Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Earlier this Congress, Sen. Toomey introduced the bipartisan Earmark Elimination Act<\/em> with Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). Their legislation would expand the temporary moratorium on earmarks to permanently ban earmarks from the legislative process.<\/p>\n

The Toomey\/McCaskill legislation would:<\/p>\n