Question 1: Earmarks help bring a lot of federal funds to projects around Texas. But why do OpenTheBooks and other critics want them banned?

 

Earmarks are often called the “currency of corruption.” In the past, Congress members have been caught using them to appeal to special interests and essentially buy votes. Obama and Sen. Tom Coburn helped ban them in 2011, but that only lasted 10 years until both parties voted to bring them back.

 

Today there’s more rules to force transparency and try to prevent conflicts of interest. But these are still local projects that often can, and arguably should, be funded locally. Some of them were already denied state/local funding because the state didn’t think it was a good use of money.

 

And the transparency isn’t perfect. The Senate posted their earmark requests this year in separate blurry PDF files with differing formats. It took our team hours to convert them to Excel files and get a dollar total. It shouldn’t be that difficult - Congress should be open about how many earmarks they request.

 

Question 2: How many earmarks did Texas’s Congress members request this year?

 

In the House, Texas’s representatives are asking for $2.7 billion. Florida is the only state that asked for more.

 

The Republican party often frames themselves as opposing government spending, but that’s not always the case when it comes to earmarks. Randy Weber from Texas’ 14th district is the second-biggest earmarker in the entire House this year. 33 of the 40 biggest earmarks are from Republicans.

 

It’s not only that Texas requested so many earmarks (424 out a possible 570), it’s that each one is for a high dollar amount. The average Texas earmark is worth roughly 50% higher than the House average. (avg. TX almost $7 million).

 

There are only 25 earmarks in the country this year worth over $100 million. Three of them are in Texas.

 

Question 3: How many of those earmarks are requested for Austin?

 

11 earmarks for $29 million from Lloyd Doggett. That’s one of the smaller earmark requests in Texas.

 

 Mostly to extend park trails and water system upgrades. The largest one is a $5 million request that will be used to repair low-income housing run by the Mary Lee Foundation in Lamar Square.

 

Michael McCaul also represents part of Austin, but most of his earmark requests are for Texas A&M. He wants $22 million to help them build an air traffic control tower and money for their police and research labs.

 

Question 4: What stance have Texas’ senators taken on earmarks?

 

Ted Cruz and John Cornyn did not request any earmarks this year.

 

Cruz was a huge opponent of bringing back earmarks in 2021, but both parties voted to bring them back anyway. He called earmarks “one of the most wasteful and corrupt practices in Congressional history."”

 

Cornyn also said last year he wants to ban earmarks. In the 2000’s, Cornyn frequently threatened to vote against spending bills with too many earmarks even though he was requesting tens of millions himself. But in recent years he’s holding up his end by not requesting any.