Yes, a tool I can use to prod action on Okeechobee dam

Earlier this month, I testified before the House Rules Committee to make the case to exclude authorized Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation projects from the earmark ban. It didn’t take long for the warnings about the dire threat earmarks pose to our society to roll in.

There’s the catchy and threatening email subject line, “Revising Earmarks Would be a Colossal Mistake.” Then, there’s the menacing firsthand account: “I’ve seen how earmarks have perverted the purpose of Congress.” Then there’s the warning that “earmark danger is imminent” — but wait — if you click and donate now we can rescue you from the scourge of earmarks. Well, of course, SIGN ME UP.

These warnings are effective and also how D.C. think tanks make money. Their scare tactics, like most, are only based in part-truths. Yes, some lawmakers abused earmarks and used them for illegal and politically beneficial purposes. And society reacted appropriately by sending those people to jail, electing them out of office, and examining why earmarks were susceptible to abuse to begin with. The actions of these corrupt politicians led to the decision that earmarks were the root of the problem, and that it was just easier to get rid of them.

I’m not advocating that we go back to the way earmarks worked in those days. I’ve proposed what I believe to be a practical solution to an actual problem caused by the earmark ban. In the context of securing funding for important water projects in Florida, the ban prevents me from doing my job. The projects I believe should be excluded from the ban are explicitly authorized by Congress and are administered by a federal agency, the Army Corps of Engineers. These Corps projects have been vetted extensively for their economic, environmental and scientific merit, and exempting them from the earmark ban wouldn’t cost the taxpayer anything extra.

The Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee is a highrisk dam and is expressly the federal government’s responsibility to maintain. Maintenance and construction cost money, and if the local Corps office says it needs $100 million to finish the job on time and the bureaucrats in D.C. give them only $40 million, my constituents suffer. Because the Herbert Hoover Dike is technically an “earmark,” I can’t provide any additional funds to the project through the annual government funding bills. Right now, because of the ban, that will happen only if the executive branch says so.

My constituents know that the dike needs to be finished. No one wants to see it fail and their homes washed away. They know the Corps is moving too slow and it’s I — their congressman — who should be fighting for them in Washington.

But I can’t. Because earmarks sound corrupt and giving Congress an inch will only result in utter destruction of society.

I’m not advocating for earmarks because I secretly want to game the system and get a bunch of kickbacks and go to jail; I have a wife and three kids, and they don’t want to see that happen, either. We live in a completely different world than we did even a decade ago, and that world has far more tools for the public to hold elected officials accountable.

Look, if the warnings from the D.C. think tanks come true, then I expect most of us serving today in Congress will be out of a job come November.

But, I have a feeling they’re wrong. I want to be an effective advocate for Southwest and Central Florida and help solve problems in my constituents’ communities. If I am able to help secure more of their tax dollars for water-quality and floodcontrol projects in their backyards, then I will have done my job.

I think that through limited earmarks, we can finally fix the dams, dredge the ports, and save the waterways of America from their greatest threat — D.C. inaction.

Tom Rooney, an Okeechobee Republican, represents Florida’s 17th District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The ban prevents me from doing my job to secure funding for important water projects in Florida.