JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Democratic Senate candidate Robin Carnahan is backing a ban on congressional spending earmarks. Republican candidate Roy Blunt says he will abide by a one-year moratorium.
But the person they are seeking to replace continues to defend earmarks.
Retiring U.S. Sen. Kit Bond warned Friday that curtailing earmarks would deprive legislators of their spending powers and give the White House and federal agencies more control over how federal money is spent in Missouri.
“I believe in thorough transparency of earmarks,” Bond said after a tour of Lincoln University in Jefferson City. “But there are fewer and fewer people in Missouri who want to provide more and more power for the executive branch of government to be the only one who decides where the money coming back to our state goes.”
Earmarks send taxpayer dollars to projects in lawmakers’ districts outside the competitive process required for other federal spending. Bond, a Republican, has used his seat on the Senate Appropriations Committee to bring numerous earmarked spending projects to Missouri.
House Republicans pledged Thursday not to insert any earmarks for local projects in this year’s spending bills. House Democrats a day earlier said they would no longer earmark spending to for-profit companies.
Blunt, a congressman from southwest Missouri, has used earmarks in the past and defended the process as a way of securing money for important local project. Campaign spokesman Rich Chrismer said Friday that Blunt will abide by the Republicans’ one-year moratorium on earmarks.
Blunt said in a statement that he will sponsor an amendment cutting spending in this year’s budget by $30.7 billion — the same amount that he said was dedicated for local projects in last year’s budget.
“These cuts represent an important step toward getting our books in balance and earning the taxpayers’ trust,” Blunt said. He also expressed support for a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget, line-item veto power for the president and a three-year freeze on domestic spending.
Carnahan, Missouri’s secretary of state, had not come out firmly against earmarks until Thursday. A campaign spokesman had said last year that she would support dedicated spending only if it was discussed openly. Now Carnahan is taking a more stringent position.
“Republicans want to stop the practice of wasteful earmark spending for just a year and the Democrats want to ban only certain kinds of earmarks — I’ve got a better solution: ban them all,” Carnahan said. “This is the problem with Washington and it’s time to get serious about cutting wasteful spending.”
Efforts to curtail earmarks may run into trouble in the Senate, where many lawmakers have made clear they have no interest in House Republicans’ self-imposed moratorium or House Democrats’ ban on earmarks to for-profit companies.
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Associated Press writer Chris Blank contributed to this report.
