Julian Bond said "I believe that the earmarking process in the past decade has ballooned out of control at a cost of billions of dollars to taxpayers. I don't believe that all earmarks, per se, are bad, but that as a general policy, we need more transparency in this process, and I believe that competitive and formula grants are a better way to assure that taxpayer dollars are spent appropriately. However, I am uncomfortable with cherry-picking which earmarks are worthy and which ones are wasteful. There were dozens and dozens of earmarks totaling tens of millions of dollars in this bill. Why pick on just three? I, however, did support an amendment to take money designated for all of the earmarked transportation projects in this bill and transfer it to fund national urgent priorities such as emergency bridge repairs." @ PoliticalQuotes.com

On the recordSeptember 12, 2007

I believe that the earmarking process in the past decade has ballooned out of control at a cost of billions of dollars to taxpayers. I don't believe that all earmarks, per se, are bad, but that as a general policy, we need more transparency in this process, and I believe that competitive and formula grants are a better way to assure that taxpayer dollars are spent appropriately. However, I am uncomfortable with cherry-picking which earmarks are worthy and which ones are wasteful. There were dozens and dozens of earmarks totaling tens of millions of dollars in this bill. Why pick on just three? I, however, did support an amendment to take money designated for all of the earmarked transportation projects in this bill and transfer it to fund national urgent priorities such as emergency bridge repairs.

Said by

Julian Bond

Alabama

Source

govinfo.gov

Editor's note · Context

Discussing earmarks and funding priorities during Senate floor debate.

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