Sentence examples for abuse of the earmark process from inspiring English sources

The decision prompted protests from government watchdog groups, who said the standard the committee had set for ethical wrongdoing would open the way to further abuse of the earmark process.

"The political reality right now is that the public has lost some confidence in this institution, and one of the reasons is the past abuses of the earmark process," Mr. Obey said.

The new rules seek to curb the most blatant abuses of the earmark process by requiring competitive bidding for any money that lawmakers want to direct to a for-profit company.

We pledged to clean up the abuses in the earmark process, and we kept that promise.

Outside of the earmark process, however, it is difficult for freshman lawmakers to exert any influence over federal agencies to direct money to particular projects.

Ms. Landrieu said that she supported further reform of the earmark process but that lawmakers often had a better grasp of local needs than agency officials in Washington.

"Going forward," Mr. Hoyer said, "we want to continue to make the earmark process, process of adding Congressional initiatives to the bill, transparent, identifiable, known to the public".

Young, of course, is as corrupt as your garden variety Republican and sees the earmark process as a kind of piggy bank for himself and his campaign donors.

We have to reform and bring transparency to the earmark process.

"It has always been an embarrassment that abuse of the ear form — earmark process has been accepted in Congress," Ms. Palin said.

M.B.: That there are plenty of legitimate federal programs, like national defense and highway construction, that are appropriate for the earmarking process.