The Congressional Earmarking system is corrupt. Earmarks allow congressmen to direct billions of our tax dollars to pet projects and preferred supporters, companies or organizations — all without public debate or even a vote in Congress. In 2007, despite a weak legislative effort, Congress funded thousands of earmarks to the tune of $13.2 billion. And now Congress is at it again with a new round of earmarks for 2008.

They are provisions often sneaked into legislation not subject to legislative or public scrutiny that result in wasteful tax dollar spending that directly benefits congressmen and their friends. Aptly called “pet projects,” “pork-barrel spending,” earmarks allow congressmen to direct billions of our tax dollars to pet projects and preferred supporters, companies or organizations — all without public debate or even a vote in Congress. Elected officials have too much vested interest in their own districts and re-election efforts, and earmarks are a tempting way to steer federal funds to meet their personal goals.

Even worse, the existing process makes it easy for lawmakers to hide potentially problematic projects from daylight. Most earmarks are never fully made public and not subjected to an actual vote in Congress. Instead they are simply attached to legislation after the votes as part of Congress report language. So in essence, there is never accountability where earmarks are concerned.

Grassfire.org is calling for an immediate one-year moratorium on all earmarks — with the goal of a permanent ban on earmarks and their corrupting influence.

Grassfire has launched a national petition to rally 100,000 grassroots citizens over the next 30 days. Grassfire will present these petitions to leaders in Congress who support the moratorium and legislation aimed at ending the current corrupt earmark process. Petitions can be found at Grassfire.org.

Dan Penird Sr.

Union Springs

Penird is a member of Grassfire.org