{"id":46531,"date":"2021-05-28T18:26:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-29T00:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lauren-boebert-ditches-earmarks-calling-them-a-corrupt-tool\/"},"modified":"2021-05-29T00:26:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T00:26:00","slug":"lauren-boebert-ditches-earmarks-calling-them-a-corrupt-tool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lauren-boebert-ditches-earmarks-calling-them-a-corrupt-tool\/","title":{"rendered":"Lauren Boebert ditches earmarks, calling them a \u2018corrupt tool\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Rep.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., center, met with sheriffs and police chiefs last week from Southwest Colorado.<\/span>Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Joining fellow Colorado Republican representatives, freshman Congresswoman Lauren Boebert didn\u2019t apply for funding of local projects through earmarks after the provision returned from a 10-year pause.<\/p>\n

Earmarks, the practice that allows representatives to direct money to projects in their local districts, were banned in the House in 2011 after concerns about corruption. One of the scandals included former Republican Rep. Duke Cunningham of California taking bribes in return for promising earmarks to defense contractors.<\/p>\n

Now that earmarks have returned, some Republican representatives are still disavowing the process, including Boebert.<\/p>\n

Colorado Democrats proposed a list of nearly $200 million in spending through earmarks, including projects such as rebuilding highway interchanges and establishing local health clinics, according to Open the Books. But in Colorado\u2019s rural regions, projects like those will not be completed through earmark funding, and constituents are concerned.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not request earmarks, and I have been a leader in opposing the reintroduction of earmarks, since they are a corrupt tool used by career politicians to reward special-interest groups, lobbyists, and campaign donors,\u201d Boebert wrote in an email to The Durango Herald<\/em>. \u201cBipartisan anti-corruption reformers in Congress banned earmarks a decade ago, but Speaker Pelosi has brought them back to bribe moderate members of Congress to support her radical leftist agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boebert also signed a pledge against earmarks along with other Republican representatives, including Ken Buck, R-Colo., in March.<\/p>\n

George Autobee, founder of the liberal PAC Rural Colorado United, said Boebert not submitting earmarks is \u201ctypical\u201d but still damaging to her district.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a part of their job, even though they don\u2019t believe in those earmarks, that\u2019s our tax money coming back to us,\u201d he said. \u201cWe paid. We\u2019re trying to get that money back into our communities to do positive things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Southern Colorado has many needs that could have been addressed through earmarks, Autobee said, such as establishing rail transport to Denver and increasing affordable housing.<\/p>\n

Earmarks used to be a bipartisan route until the scandals, said Kevin Kosar, a scholar studying American politics and policy at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. After the scandals involving Republican representatives like Cunningham, the GOP paused earmarks to \u201cfix their brand,\u201d Kosar said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoebert needs to ask herself how can she fix local problems if she doesn\u2019t ask for some form of directed spending,\u201d he said. \u201cNow this is money already appropriated by Congress, it\u2019s going to be spent somewhere. And does she really want Joe Biden\u2019s executive branch making the decision?\u201d<\/p>\n

Carol Cure, former chairwoman of the La Plata County Democrats, said she\u2019s \u201cdismayed\u201d by Boebert\u2019s decision. Improving broadband, revamping roads and bridges, and establishing affordable health care programs are some of the projects La Plata County has a \u201ctremendous need\u201d for, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe certainly have a lot of needs that she was elected to care about and to represent, and I don\u2019t see her doing them,\u201d Cure said.<\/p>\n

The La Plata County Republican Central Committee did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Filipowski, chairwoman of the Eagle County Democrats; and Kevin Kuns, chairman of the Montrose County Democratic Party, voiced similar concerns about their counties\u2019 needs but were not surprised Boebert did not apply for funding.<\/p>\n

In rural areas of Colorado where there are fewer resources than in urban centers, earmarks are especially needed to improve infrastructure, said Mary Dodd, chairwoman of the Montezuma County Democrats.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think she simply even had the skills to get earmarks, and that is as a constituent, and as someone who is paying part of her salary,\u201d Dodd said.<\/p>\n

Although Boebert did not apply for earmarks, she says she\u2019s applying for funding through other means.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though I won\u2019t be requesting earmarks, I put the needs of my district first every day,\u201d Boebert wrote in an email to the Herald<\/em>. \u201cMy office advocates for federal funding to flow to our district through competitive grant processes based on need and the merits and in the same open, honest, and fair way that Congress has used for the past decade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boebert also applied for appropriations requests that would benefit her district, including funding for U.S. Air Force flight training, community health centers and the bark beetle epidemic, she said.<\/p>\n

Despite Republicans denouncing spending through earmarks, several Republican representatives applied for the largest sums of funding.<\/p>\n

Louisiana Rep. Garret Graves requested the largest amount at more than $1 billion, according to Open the Books. Texas Rep. Beth Van Duyne, Alaska Rep. Don Young and Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer are in the top 10 of spending proposals through earmarks, as well.<\/p>\n

Kaela Roeder is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a 2021 graduate of American University in Washington, D.C.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Southwest Colorado constituents concerned infrastructure needs won\u2019t be addressed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[981,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-3rd-congressional-district","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46531"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}