Boehner: No earmarks next year

Incoming House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) reiterated Friday that the GOP-controlled House will not authorize earmark spending next year. 

“The House has banned the practice of earmarks … we’re not going to have them,” he said during a press conference. 

Conservatives were outraged this week after the Senate looked set to vote on an omnibus spending bill with more than $8 billion in earmarks. The local projects were requested by both Democrats and Republicans, and until Thursday night it appeared the measure might have had enough votes to sail through the Senate. 

Boehner said he could not control what happens in the upper chamber. “What happens throughout the rest of the town is up to them but I would hope that they would listen to the American people and
follow the example that we will set in the House.”

Senate Republicans such as Mitch McConnell (Ky.), John Thune (S.D.) and John Cornyn (Texas) were charged with hypocrisy for including earmark requests in the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending package that was before the Senate. All three pledged to vote against the omnibus, and McConnell worked behind the scenes to convince his colleagues to oppose the bill.  

The members explained they requested the items earlier this year before an internal earmark moratorium was passed. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) eventually pulled the bill off the floor due to a lack of support.

In order to prevent another uproar, House Republicans — who will be in the majority — adopted an earmark moratorium for the 112th Congress, which begins Jan. 5. Senate Republicans have also adopted an earmark moratorium, but the Senate failed to pass a full ban late last month.