Friday, April 4, 2008 (10:00 AM CDT) - Ed Fallon today called for abolishing congressional earmarks, challenging incumbent Congressman Leonard Boswell to match his own pledge to refuse earmarks and to work to end the practice. “If Congressman Boswell isn’t agreeable to earmark reform, then I believe the public has an interest in hearing a debate between the two of us on the issue,” Fallon said.
“Earmarks are the epitome of pork barrel spending, and are an abuse of power, position, and taxpayers’ trust,” Fallon said. “They allow members to direct spending to their pet projects, often as payback to big donors. Lobbyists spent $160 million to influence Congress in 2006. They got great return on their investment -- $12 billion in earmarks.”
Fallon pointed out that his opponent in this race, Rep. Leonard Boswell, is a worse than average offender. In 2007, the average House member who was not a member of the Appropriations Committee obtained $4 million in earmarks. “Despite increased public outrage over earmarks,” Fallon said, “Congressman Boswell actually increased his use of earmarks this year, securing earmarks worth $33.1 million, up from $32.3 in the previous budget.”
Fallon noted that he
has endorsed the Change Congress movement’s
pledge to abolish earmarks, and that his own
pledge is featured on the first page of his
campaign website: “I, Ed Fallon, do hereby pledge that I
will personally support spending reform in
Congress by refusing to seek, support, or enact
earmarks during the appropriations process, and
will work for the abolition of
earmarks.”
If elected, Fallon will join
twelve U.S. representatives and six senators
who refuse to request earmarks, including
Democratic Senators Russ Feingold, Clare
McCaskill, and Jay Rockefeller. “It’s the right
thing to do,” Fallon said, “and I will still
see that my constituents’ interests are met
through appropriate budget practices. Members
managed to do that for over 200 years without
earmarks.” Fallon believes that while many of
the projects funded by earmarks are valuable,
they should be open to public scrutiny and
subject to a merit-based, competitive bidding
process.
While his remarks were prompted by Wednesday’s release of the 2008 Congressional Pig Book by Citizens Against Government Waste, Fallon noted that when he announced his congressional campaign in January, he identified budget reform in general and earmark reform in particular as one of the issues propelling his campaign.
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