November 15, 2016

U.S. House of Representatives
House Republican Conference
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Representative,

Tomorrow, you will consider the Republican conference rules for the 115th Congress.  On behalf of the more than one million members and supporters of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), I urge you to oppose any efforts to resurrect congressional earmarks.

This is the third consecutive election that Republicans have kept the majority in the House of Representatives.  However, some members may remember 2006, when the party lost the House following a record $29 billion in appropriations earmarks and $24.8 billion in highway bill earmarks, including the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” in Alaska.  Voting to bring back earmarks would likely lead to the same result in two years.

Restoring earmarks would not "drain the swamp" in Washington, it would begin filling it up.  A vote to resurrect earmarks would be a repudiation of the election results on November 8.  Voters made it very clear one week ago that they want to end wasteful spending and change business as usual in Washington.  It would be rather foolish to make them believe they made the wrong choice. 

Since 1991, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has documented 110,442 earmarks at a cost of $323.1 billion to the taxpayers.  The 2016 Congressional Pig Book cited 123 earmarks, costing taxpayers $5.1 billion. 

At a time when the national debt is nearing $20 trillion, the nation cannot afford to waste money on a single pork-barrel project.   Taxpayers don’t need another Bridge to Nowhere or teapot museum, they need the newly-elected Congress to cut spending and save their hard-earned money. Rather than voting to restore earmarks, the House Republican Conference ought to be voting to permanently ban earmarks. 

Sincerely, 

Tom Schatz
President, CCAGW