Question of Earmark Status for MTBs is New, Says Incoming House Trade Chair

Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., who will become the chairman of the House Commerce Committee's Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee said during an interview that the recent disagreement over miscellaneous tariff bills (MTB) and whether they amount to congressional earmarks is a new wrinkle to the process. The MTB faces controversy over whether the duty suspensions are earmarks and if such a bill violates a congressional GOP ban on earmarks.

(The House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees are in the process of assembling an MTB, which would suspend duty requirements on various products. Hundreds of duty suspensions would expire if a new MTB isn't passed by the end of the year. )

Considering MTBs to be earmarks is a new phenomenon, said Terry. "None of us would have never thought of miscellaneous tariff bills as earmarks, but yeah I've heard them called that," he said. "I did one back in the day and it's because our nuclear power plant needed a specific part that was only made in Japan and there was a tariff on it. There was no alternative. They either bought that one and paid the tariff -- and so we exempted the part. What we have to think through is there's times when these really are specific but that doesn't make it an earmark like you're getting getting money for the lobster museum that your buddy is running.

The definition of earmark may need an update, he said. "So somehow we are going to have to clear that up," Terry said. "That is a conference and congressional issue of how we are going to define earmarks. I think the earmark definition has become so broad now that it covers anything that's specific and you can't run Congress that way because bills sometimes have to be very specific." The discussion of the definition of earmark will be at a "leadership level of discussion not a subcommittee level," he said.