Congressman Platts Supports House Republican Ban on Earmarks

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Todd Platts (PA-19) today advocated for and supported a unilateral ban on earmarks adopted by the House Republican Conference.  As such, Congressman Platts will not request earmarks as part of this year’s federal appropriations process.

 “I have long been an advocate for reforming an earmark process that the American people well understand is broken,” Platts said. “At a time when seniors and families are struggling to cut spending to make ends meet, Congress is continuing to saddle future generations with trillions of dollars in debt.  Reforming the earmark process is a crucial step in fundamentally improving the way Congress spends taxpayer funds.”

During his first term as a Member of Congress, Congressman Platts cosponsored legislation to establish a line-item veto for the President to eliminate “pork-barrel” earmarks – and later introduced his own version of this legislation.  Under both Republican and Democratic Congresses, Congressman Platts has supported legislation intended to make the earmark process more open and accountable.  Some limited earmark reforms were ultimately adopted, such as listing sponsors of earmarks in appropriations reports; requiring the filing of certifications that Members of Congress have no financial interest in earmark requests; and, the identification of earmarks “air-dropped” in conference committees. Not satisfied with these results, Congressman Platts joined with a number of Republican colleagues during the last and current session of Congress in pushing for legislation (H. Con. Res 263 and H. Con. Res 201, respectively) which would impose an immediate moratorium on earmarks while a Joint Committee on Earmark Reform works to recommend further improvements to the appropriations process.  Congressman Platts wrote to Speaker Pelosi earlier this week requesting her to support passage of H. Con. Res. 201. 

 In 2008, Congressman Platts joined with approximately forty House colleagues in adopting their own earmark moratorium while pushing to make the appropriations process more open, accountable, and fiscally responsible.

Congressman Platts pledged that, if Congress did not fully reform the process itself, he would further strengthen his office’s own process for selecting projects in the 19th Congressional District.  As such, Congressman Platts last year created a ten member advisory board comprised of community leaders throughout the 19th District to review earmark requests in the most open and transparent manner possible.  The advisory members, chosen from Adams, Cumberland and York counties on an approximate per capita basis, reviewed all earmark requests received by Congressman Platts’ office and made the final decision as to which projects were submitted to the House appropriations committee for consideration. 

 “While many of the projects submitted to my office from local governments and non-profit organizations are for worthy endeavors, too many earmarked projects nationally have not been appropriate recipients of taxpayer dollars and received little or no scrutiny prior to passage,” Platts said.  “The wastefulness of much of this spending by the federal government has to stop if Congress is to be serious about handling taxpayer funds in a more accountable and responsible manner.  It is my sincere hope that Speaker Pelosi and her Democratic colleagues will join Republican House members in adopting a moratorium on earmarks.”