A new blog post in AEI by Zachary Courser & Kevin R. Kosar discusses and makes some recommendations in regards to bipartisanship in the process of reforming congressional earmarks. Here is an excerpt:
The Democratic leadership in Congress is currently making fast moves toward reimplementing earmarks after a 10-year moratorium. This is a very positive development to re-empower legislators to direct needed federal resources to local and regional needs. As we’ve written in our recent AEI report, the earmark moratorium failed: It did not reduce discretionary spending, it increased congressional polarization, and it undermined coalition building. It also shifted more power over discretionary spending to executive agencies. All of which is why top experts on Congress supported scrapping the moratorium.
Congressional committees are asking members to get their earmark requests in by the end of this month, and have released preliminary guidelines on how to do so. But Congress must take care that haste does not make waste. Any mistakes will elicit a political backlash and efforts to ban the practice.
Based on our research, we have a few recommendations that congressional committees should take into consideration as they move forward.
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