Last week, Congressman Mike Pence's recent self-imposed ban on earmarks came into the spotlight. As a result of this ban, certain projects at Ball State University lost a likely source of funding as a result.
An earmark refers to any part of a spending bill, which lays out the budget for the government, which allocates money for a specific project or institution. Typically, legislators use earmarks to direct money to a particular organization or project in his or her home district.
A small number of members of both parties have sworn off earmarks including about three dozen members in the House and several in the Senate, including John McCain.
Although the first recorded use of an earmark in U.S. history dates back to 1871, earmarking did not start becoming common until the 1970's, thus making it a relatively new phenomenon in the political landscape, according to Source Watch, a think tank ran by the Center for Media and Democracy.
In that time, earmarks have developed a fairly bad reputation, mainly caused by misinformation and misconceptions.
The two common arguments against earmarks are they take up a significant part of the federal budget and they are used to appease lobbyists.
In 2005, there were roughly 15,000 congressional earmarks, at a total cost of $47 billion. That amount is 1.5 percent of the more than $3 trillion price tag of the federal budget for that year. Additionally, $47 billion is a fairly insignificant amount compared to the more than $3 trillion spent so far on the Iraq War.
As for the argument that earmarks are used to appease lobbyists, only part of this statement is true. Normally, the term lobbyist used in these attacks refer to big business lobbyists, not special interest group lobbyists like teachers and environmentalists who seek to do good for the community, not just turn a profit. Big business lobbyists tend to focus less on earmarks and more on tax policy and specific bills.
Congressmen often defend the use of earmarks by saying that they know their district's constituents, academic institutions and programs better than any executive agency.
Despite the negative perceptions about earmarks, they are actually normally used for good, not evil. Earmarks allow special projects such as expanded schools, new hospitals and additional parks to be built when they otherwise wouldn't be able to be.
Ball State hopes to use earmarks to advance projects such as the Bowen Center for Public Affairs, a mobile nursing classroom and Phase 3 of the McKinley Project. Ball State has used earmarks in the past for the first two phases of the McKinley Project as well as the Center for School Innovation, part of the Building Better Communities project.
These previous earmarks were made possible because of Congressman Pence.
Pence has advocated for earmark reform since taking office in 2001, but it wasn't until recently that he's sworn off earmarks altogether. He's said last week that "he felt he would best be able to advocate reform if he did not earmark at all."
While this sounds like a noble statement, I believe there are other reasons as to why he is all of a sudden swearing off earmarks.
In January, Pence became chairman of the Republican Conference, the third highest position in the Republican Party. Some see him as the potential future of the party.
With this potential future comes a potential promotion, to senator or even president. In order to gear up for those possible positions, Pence is starting to take on more hardline Republican views.
It is nice to have the person representing our district be held to such high regard by his party, but his loyalties need to be examined. As our congressman, Pence is supposed to protect our interests before the interests of his party. His recent promotion has made him forget that.
It's our job to remind him.
President Jo Ann Gora and others are asking Congressman Pence not to uphold his self-imposed ban on earmarks. I respect their efforts and plan to do my part in order to help. I hope you will do your part as well.
Call or write Congressman Pence and tell him that his self-imposed ban is hurting his district and hurting the university.
As a former intern for a congressman, I will tell you that those calls and letters make a tremendous difference when the congressman walks on to the House floor for a vote.
Congressman Pence can be reached at his local office at:
107 West Charles Street Muncie, IN 47305 765-747-5566 office
Write to Frank at frhood@bsu.edu
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