The Swine Line

From the Houston Chronicle:

Amid re-election bid, McCaul vows to drop earmarks

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, apparently facing a stiff challenge for re-election in November, said Monday that he would no longer request controversial spending projects known as earmarks.

McCaul’s well-financed opponent, Democrat Larry Joe Doherty, questioned the sincerity of the congressman’s reversal but said he, too, would not ask for earmarks if elected to the district that sprawls from western Harris County to Austin….Critics complain that the orders do not receive adequate scrutiny and are not always awarded on merit. One other member of the Texas congressional delegation, GOP Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Dallas, has also refused to request earmarks.

…”The system is broken and it needs to be fixed,” McCaul said. “A majority of these earmarks wouldn’t get through Congress if they were given the best test of sunlight. Until they put more transparency into the system, I am not going to play the game.”