Earmark ban not a problem for Nevada
By Amber Phillips, Las Vegas Sun
In Congress, the smoke-filled, back-room deal trading is gone. So is the more benign equivalent, the earmark.
Nevada’s delegation is split about whether that’s a good thing and one bill that passed Congress this week shows why.
Nevada lawmakers managed to get a major $280 million flood management project for the Reno and Sparks area authorized as one of 34 projects in a water infrastructure bill Congress approved this week.
The process took a lot more work in today’s post-earmark era, where members of Congress can no longer quietly slip pet projects into legislation without consulting anyone. Nevada’s share of the water bill, for example, took a decade of lobbying from the most powerful person in the Senate, Nevada’s Harry Reid.