Issue Position: Appropriations

Issue Position

As your representative in Congress, one of my foremost duties is to help ensure that South Texas receives our fair share of federal funding.

Each year Congress passes budget and appropriations bills to fund national priorities such as infrastructure, education, law enforcement, and defense.

These funds may be disbursed in either of two ways:

Through block funding to government agencies
Through direct funding of specific projects

Each method serves an important purpose. Money provided to agencies accounts for approximately 99% of discretionary federal spending, and it provides for the day-to-day financing of most federal, state and local activities. The remaining 1% is directed by lawmakers to specific projects, a practice that dates back for centuries and that allows Members of Congress -- who are directly accountable to local voters -- to give their communities a voice in federal spending.

Responsible Funding

One of my priorities in Congress is to ensure that all federal taxpayer dollars are spent as effectively and accountably as possible, and in the case of direct appropriations, also known as "earmarks," this requires lawmakers to be forthright and transparent throughout the appropriations process.

In early 2006, I supported rules requiring every earmark enacted into law to include the name of its sponsor and require Members of Congress to sign sworn-declarations that they have no financial stake in the appropriations they request. Together, these measures have helped to cut earmarked spending by over 40% in just the last two years.

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