Pelosi, Democrats Risk Voter Support by Continuing to Fund Pet Projects

[Purveyor]

Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said last year that she would be happy to ``do away with'' the practice of funding members' pet projects, though she knew it wasn't ``realistic.'' This year proves how right she was.

Thousands of so-called earmarks still adorn spending bills, including 15 from Pelosi in a defense measure. Their continued popularity shows how difficult it is to change a system that allows members to bring federal money home for their constituents. Polls show Democrats aren't getting credit for what they say is a major overhaul of the earmark system.

Democrats, who never promised to abolish the practice altogether, say they have cut the number of earmarks and for the first time the names of the sponsors and the companies that stand to gain are all being made public. Ethics watchdog groups, pointing to spotty disclosure rules, say more needs to be done.

``They've made some steps forward, but we've still got a long way to go before we get to real transparency and earmark reform and really reining in the excesses of the last decade,'' says Steve Ellis, vice president of the Washington-based Taxpayers for Common Sense, which compiles databases of earmarks.

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