washington<u+2014>house speaker paul ryan (r., wis.) on wednesday halted a growing push among house republicans to bring back <u+201c>earmarks,<u+201d> lawmakers<u+2019> ability to direct federal funding to specific projects. in a closed-door meeting of house republicans, mr. ryan stepped in and stopped lawmakers from passing a change to their internal rules on wednesday that would have allowed them to make limited funding requests for their districts, according to house gop aides. mr. ryan noted that republican donald trump had just won the white house last week with a pledge to <u+201c>drain the swamp,<u+201d> and that the house couldn<u+2019>t immediately turn around and bring back the practice without public debate, according to someone in the room. he pledged to debate the issue more thoroughly and let them vote on it by the end of march 2017. house republicans had been debating a proposal from rep. tom rooney (r., fla.) that would have let lawmakers request funding only for u.s. army corps of engineers and bureau of reclamation projects, aides said. it was clear from comments at the meeting, aides said, that there was support for the measure from lawmakers annoyed that they had ceded some of the more granular funding decisions to the executive branch after banning earmarks in 2010 . <u+201c>there<u+2019>s a lot of pent-up frustration that we have voluntarily given our congressional authority to the executive branch,<u+201d> rep. mike rogers (r., ala.), a supporter of the new push, said wednesday night. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s time to take that back in a responsible way.<u+201d> mr. rogers said he expected the proposal would be approved by house republicans next year. but the effort sparked an immediate backlash outside the capitol, fanned by the suspicions of conservative groups that have long called earmarks emblematic of rampant federal spending and lawmakers helping out special-interest groups. <u+201c>earmarks have come to symbolize everything wrong with how washington does business, and the effort by some republican lawmakers to bring them back shows they aren<u+2019>t serious about changing a thing,<u+201d> andy koenig, a vice president at freedom partners, a conservative group affiliated with the koch brothers, said in a statement wednesday. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell (r., ky.), who previously supported the practice, said he didn<u+2019>t think they would return in the senate. but retiring minority leader harry reid (d., nev.) called himself <u+201c>one of the kings of earmarks<u+201d> wednesday, and vigorously advocated for their return. <u+201c>it was a terrible disservice to america to come up with this stupid idea<u+2014>stupid idea<u+2014>to stop congressional-directed spending,<u+201d> mr. reid told reporters. <u+201c>i<u+2019>ve never apologized to anybody. i go home and i boast about earmarks. and that<u+2019>s what everyone should do.<u+201d> write to kristina peterson at kristina.peterson@wsj.com
paul ryan halts gop push to revive earmarks - wsj
kristina peterson