Hundreds of millions of dollars in unspent transportation earmarks would be returned to the federal treasury under a bill introduced July 14 by Rep. Betsy Markey, the Loveland Connection reports. ^[1]

The report notes that the bill drew praise from two government waste watchdog groups, who cited it as an example of long-overdue reform.

“Long-term economic growth and recovery can’t happen unless we cut wasteful government spending and tackle our exploding deficit,” said Markey, D-Colo., in the report. “These old earmarks are a waste of taxpayer money and cutting them just makes sense.”

Unspent earmarks — specific directives from Congress on how an appropriation should be spent — in some cases date back to more than two decades and range in amounts from 2 cents to $26.8 million, according to the report.