Andy Harris Supports U.S. House GOP Agreement On Earmarks

Harris calls on House Democrats to follow suit

ANNAPOLIS—State Senator Andy Harris, M.D., today, (yesterday) announced his support for the U.S. House Republican Conference's agreement to ban earmarks for all 2011 spending legislation. Harris has made ending wasteful Washington spending a priority in his campaign to be the next U.S. Representative for Maryland's First Congressional District. Harris released the following statement:

"I am pleased that the House Republican Conference has taken a strong stand against earmarks. Earmarks have come to represent the broken system in Washington and how the process of appropriating federal tax dollars needs to be completely reformed. In recent years earmarks have wrongly evolved into money being doled out by a few powerful members and have resulted in corruption, unseemly deals like the 'Cornhusker Kickback' and the 'Lousiana Purchase' and the loss of the public trust. While I support this stance by the GOP Conference, it is my hope that additional steps will be taken to ensure that taxpayers are funding only projects that have been vetted by the entire Congress and appropriate federal agencies. Now is the right time for this stance in light of the record-breaking federal deficits being racked up by Washington and the economic recession still bearing down on many American families. I call on the U.S. House Democratic Conference to take the same strong stand as House Republicans have done today."

The U.S. House Democratic Conference announced yesterday a ban on for-profit earmarks. According to the Baltimore Sun: "The exceptions were Democratic Reps. Steny H. Hoyer, Donna Edwards and Chris Van Hollen, who sought funds only for nonprofit or governmental projects. In many of those cases, however, private companies ultimately benefited." (House Democrats act to ban corporate earmarks, West, March 10, 2010)