WASHINGTON — The Republican Study Committee, the traditional bastion of conservative thought within the House Republican Conference, has taken an official position on the practice of earmarking funds in spending bills for lawmakers’ districts: It’s opposed.
To drive that point home, the fiscal 2023 budget blueprint that the 158-member group — representing about three-fourths of the conference — released earlier this month calls for an outright ban on the special home-state projects.
“Earmarks divert taxpayer resources to special interests, grease the wheels of Washington’s spending machine and set a poor example of fiscal responsibility,” reads the plan unveiled by RSC Chairman Jim Banks, R-Ind., and the group’s Budget and Spending Task Force.
