In 2006 alone, earmarks cost taxpayers $29 billion.  Earlier this year, just prior to the beginning of the appropriations process, Democrats in Congress proposed keeping all earmark spending in bills hidden until after the bill had been voted on, forcing lawmakers to vote on bills without knowing what they were voting to fund.  Congressman Hensarling, who does not request earmarks and was a lead negotiator to reform earmark rules in 2006, led the effort that forced House leadership to disclose all earmarks in bills before they come up for a vote.

“Earmarks are the gateway drug for spending addiction and are big contributors to the culture of runaway spending in Washington,” Hensarling said.  “At the end of the day, in order to pay for earmarks, Congress forces families to fork over more of their hard-earned tax dollars to benefit a select number of people, and that will keep families from achieving their American Dream.  In 2006, Congress spent $29 billion in earmarks.  That is enough to fund the monthly Social Security benefits of 34.5 million Texans or the annual benefits of almost 2.9 million Texas seniors.”

Congressman Hensarling, chairman of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), the largest caucus in the House whose membership includes over 100 of the most conservative House Republicans, also noted that each time an earmark is funded, no matter how worthy it might be, Congress is raiding the Social Security Trust Fund to pay for it. 

Hensarling said, “As long as we are running a deficit, each dollar Washington spends comes out of the Social Security Trust Fund.  We must ask ourselves if earmarks are worth threatening the retirement security of our nation’s seniors who have paid into Social Security for decades.  I say they are not.”

In order to protect the Social Security Trust Fund, Congressman Hensarling personally offered several amendments to strike $6.5 million in pork from next year’s spending bills.  Hensarling has led the charge against wasteful spending and egregious earmarks in the House of Representatives and, along with his colleagues in the RSC, has introduced over 50 amendments on the House floor this year aimed at striking earmarks from bills and restoring fiscal accountability to Washington.

“We have to go further in changing the culture of spending in Washington.  Higher government spending leads to higher taxes and I, for one, believe that better things can be done when the taxpayers keep their own money,” Hensarling said.  “I fear that if we say ‘yes’ to earmarks today, we are saying ‘no’ to our children’s future tomorrow.”

Some examples of earmarks that Congressman Hensarling voted to eliminate include: a $2 million earmark for the “Rangel Center for Public Service,” requested by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) to provide himself an office and a library; a $1 million earmark for the Center for Instrumented Critical Infrastructure, an organization that no one could confirm existed; a $300,000 earmark to train future employees of Hollywood movie sets, a $231,000 earmark for an airport that does not exist in Illinois; and a $50,000 earmark for the National Mule and Packers Museum in California.

In addition to his work to strike earmarks on the floor, earlier this year, Congressman Hensarling re-introduced his landmark budget reform legislation, the Family Budget Protection Act (H.R. 2084), that would combat earmarks and waste fraud and abuse by giving the President line item-veto authority and establishing a commission to make recommendations on how to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.  An earlier version of the H.R. 2084 was heralded by taxpayer watchdog groups as the “Gold Standard” of budget reform legislation.  H.R. 2084 would also place a cap on the growth of the federal budget, ensuring that it doesn’t outgrow the ability of the family budget to pay for it.

The line-item veto would take earmark reform to the next level by allowing the President to identify egregious pork barrel spending requests and send them back to Congress for an up or down vote without jeopardizing the entire bill, forcing Congress to accept or reject loads of pork on an individual basis.  The line-item veto provisions of the Family Budget Protection Act are identical to Rep. Paul Ryan’s Legislative Line Item Veto Act (H.R. 689).

“I support the bill sponsored by the Ranking Member of the Budget Committee, Paul Ryan, because I think giving the President line-item veto authority is essential to enforcing the budget and restoring fiscal sanity in Washington,” Hensarling said.  “The line-item veto is already working in more than 43 states where governors are using the power of the pen to protect taxpayers and Congress should welcome the President as an ally in the fight to control runaway federal spending by giving him the Constitutional authority to trim special interest giveaways and eliminate unnecessary earmarks.” 

Congressman Hensarling has received numerous honors and awards for his outstanding service in Congress, including the “Taxpayer Hero” award on behalf of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, the National Taxpayers Union’s “Friend of the Taxpayer” award, the Club for Growth’s “Defender of Economic Freedom” award, and Americans for Tax Reform’s “Hero of the Taxpayer” award.  Additionally, the National Taxpayers Union recently announced that Congressman Hensarling had the most fiscally conservative record in the 109^th Congress, meaning that bills he sponsored and co-sponsored would have saved taxpayers more money than any other member of Congress.  The Club for Growth also recently announced that Congressman Hensarling was one of only sixteen members of Congress to score a perfect 100% on the group’s “RePork Card,” meaning that he voted for all 50 anti-pork amendments offered in the House this year.