GOP approved earmark ban for 112th Congress and re-upped for 113th

Over the years, reformers from both parties have taken aim at earmarks -- the items included by Members of Congress in large spending bills. Shortly after their victory in the 2010 midterm elections, the House Republican Conference approved an earmark ban for the 112th Congress. Since the majority in the House effectively runs how the chamber operates, this ban essentially governed all bills generated in the House.

Approval of the earmark ban kept the House GOP's campaign promise to refuse to "consider House legislation that includes earmarks."

However, in our previous update, we said we would reserve judgment before awarding a Promise Kept to make sure that no pseudo-earmarks slipped in.

Steve Ellis, a critic of earmarks and vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, said he's "fairly certain” that the House "didn't take up legislation with earmarks. One could quibble whether some things are or are not earmarks -- and we do -- but by their standard, they didn't take up legislation with earmarks.”

Equally important, during the November 2012 organizational meetings for the upcoming 113th Congress, GOP leaders stopped an effort backed by some in their conference to reinstate earmarks, at least in a limited way.

Prior to the organizational meeting, the congressional newspaper Roll Call reported that Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, was planning to offer an amendment that would have allowed earmarks under certain circumstances, such as when the recipient was a unit of local government. Young is well known for having championed a $223 million earmark in 2005 to build the controversial "Bridge to Nowhere” in his home state.

But Young eventually withdrew the amendment "under pressure from Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who had made his opposition to the measure clear,” according to the Hill, another congressional newspaper. The newspaper quoted a source close to Boehner saying that "clear opposition in the room” helped push Young away from offering the amendment.

While defining an earmark remains a complicated matter, we think the House Republicans have kept to the spirit of their earmark ban, and their decision to continue the ban into the next Congress only reinforces that. We rate this a Promise Kept.