Republicans in Congress voted last week to discard the ban on earmarks, requiring representatives to publicly request district funding as long as they don't have any personal or family conflict of interest.

The vote came after bipartisan support across Congress, in which banning earmarks put too much control in the hands of the president, whom lawmakers say doesn't have the personal involvement with each district that the House does. After the vote changed the policy, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) defended the decision. 

"There's a real concern about the administration directing where money goes," McCarthy told the Washington Examiner. "This doesn't add one more dollar. I think members here know what's most important about what's going on in their district, not [President] Biden. I think members want to have a say in their own district." 

Although the bill had plenty of support from both parties, there were still some members that spoke against lifting the ban.

“That isn't the leadership that we need," Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said in a House Freedom Caucus news conference Wednesday, according to the Washington Examiner. "The Republican Party should be ashamed of itself for embracing earmarks when the American people are staring $30 trillion in debt."

There were 18 Republicans, led by Roy, who wrote a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) last week that they "will not request earmarks, or the preferred euphemism of the day, 'Community Project Funding," the Examiner reported. Roy told The Hill that lifting the ban on earmarks all boils down to a "legislative bribery" for votes.

Former President Donald Trump in 2018 showed support for lifting the ban on earmarks, according to Axios.

The Center for American Restoration wrote a letter to House Republicans that policies such as earmarks "aid and abet" the foundations of America such as freedom of speech, market access and free-flowing information.

To read the letter from the Center for American Restoration, click here.