House GOP bans earmarks starting next session

Republican House members voted Thursday to ban all earmarks once they take control of the chamber in January, but the move will not jeopardize the chances for U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello’s $6.05 million worth of earmarks pending for the Charlottesville area to be approved.

Rep.-elect Robert Hurt joined with his Republican conference colleagues on Thursday to forbid the practice of congressmen inserting spending items for pet projects — usually located in their own district — into federal spending bills.

“Voters delivered a clear message on Election Day that we must make a change in Washington and put an end to the out-of-control government spending that has led our nation down an unacceptable path of trillion-dollar deficits and skyrocketing debt,” Hurt said in a statement.

The “corrupt and wasteful” earmark process, Hurt added, has fueled “Washington’s reckless spending spree” of recent years.

The Republican earmark ban will go into effect for the 112th Congress, which convenes in early January.

In the meantime, however, the Democrats have control of the House and are expected to pass a number of spending authorization bills that include earmarks.

Perriello, a freshman Democrat who lost to Hurt in the Nov. 2 election, secured the inclusion of five earmarks for Charlottesville-area projects in various federal spending measures that are awaiting votes before Congress adjourns.

Michael Kelly, Perriello’s deputy press secretary, said the appropriations bills are expected to pass before Democrats relinquish control of the House.

“It’s a pretty safe bet they’re going to act on it by the end of the year,” Kelly said.

Perriello’s pending earmarks include $500,000 to extend the runway at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport, $500,000 for improvements to the U.S. 29-250 Bypass interchange, $200,000 to upgrade public safety radio communication in Nelson County and $850,000 for the planned African-American Heritage Cultural Center in Charlottesville’s Jefferson School.

Perriello’s most expensive pending earmark for the Charlottesville area is a $4 million allocation for the Jefferson Program, a partnership between the University of Virginia and a nonprofit research firm called the Batelle Memorial Institute. The money would go to Batelle’s office in the UVa Research Park for an “innovative electronic interface to survey biological warfare capabilities and threats, whether on the battlefield or through terrorism,” according to documents filed by Perriello’s office.

Earmarks make up about 1 percent of federal spending, but have been long criticized by some as pork barrel spending.

Under the Democratic leadership, the House implemented a number of reforms to the process and make it more transparent. One of these reforms, for example, requires congressmen to post online the list of all their earmark requests for each fiscal year.

Kelly said earmarks have served as an avenue for localities in Virginia’s 5th District — which stretches from Charlottesville to Danville — to obtain federal money for priority projects that would not have otherwise received funding.

“Rep. Perriello has fought to secure federal support for deserving projects that create real value and reflect the priorities of the 5th District,” Kelly said. “His requests, which are all posted online, have been for projects that are transformative, cost-effective, and create jobs. He has also introduced legislation to prevent corruption by banning earmark requests on behalf of political donors.”

Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris said localities will have two remaining avenues to pursue federal funding once the earmark process is stopped by the House Republicans in January.

Localities such as Charlottesville, he said, can still apply for federal grants and may also now ask senators and representatives to request that funding for local projects be included in the White House’s budget proposal, rather than inserting earmarks into the bill at a later point in the process.

Earmarks, he added, have proven beneficial for Charlottesville and are not necessarily bad, so long as the process is transparent.

“I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with congressional representatives pushing for allocations of tax dollars for their districts,” Norris said. “We send a lot of money to Washington in the form of federal tax dollars. It’s only fair to expect some of that back.”