Congress may have banned new earmarks, but one senator said Thursday that federal law is still littered with billions of dollars worth of old earmarks that were never spent — but still could be if a spendthrift administration decided to do so.
Dubbing them “Jurassic pork,” Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican who’s aiming for title of Congress’s top waste-watcher, said they range from unneeded roads and bicycle trails to national park sites that were the whim of a powerful member of Congress, yet still get funding today.
“Pork finds a way,” Mr. Flake said, summing up the key concept of “Jurassic Park,” the movie the senator was spoofing with his attack on earmarks. He even carried pork barbecue sandwiches into the Senate’s press gallery to try to drive his message home to reporters.
Congress banned earmark spending in 2011, shutting down most of the pet projects that lawmakers tried to slip into spending and transportation bills. Mr. Flake said that ban has worked well.
But before the ban, billions of dollars were approved every year, and many of those projects remain unbuilt but on the books, meaning they could still be resurrected by an ambitious patron and a willing administration.
Mr. Flake says Congress should pass a bill killing decade-old earmarks. He said that would be particularly timely this year, given that the massive 2005 transportation bill, with billions of dollars in unspent projects, would pass that 10-year mark later this summer.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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