In Washington, House Republicans announced on Thursday that their entire-178-member conference would not seek any congressional earmarks this year.
And for the record, Bill Young says he's cool with it.
The Pinellas based Representative told the St. Petersburg Times' Alex Leary that:
"It's fair … The fact they are making it across the board, makes it far more acceptable. It was something that was going to happen eventually, so why not now?"
Later in the interview though, Leary has Young, who proudly has boasted of getting loads of earmarks over his near four decade long tenure in the House, to admit that he was a bit wistful about the move:
He attributed the move to media efforts publicizing "terrible" earmarks like the "bridge to nowhere" as well as public concern about federal spending and debt — concern cited by Republican leaders today.
This article appears in Mar 10-16, 2010.