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A few weeks ago, parents across the country bundled their kids up and sent them back to school after the holiday break. For some this meant loading them onto a bus that would drop their child off at a nearby private school, walking their child down the street to the local public school, driving them a town over to a charter school, or herding them down into the basement to resume home schooling.

Remember earmarks, those infamous, special-interest spending provisions party leaders used to sprinkle over legislation like sugar to get representatives and senators to hold their noses and vote yes on bills they would otherwise oppose? You probably haven’t heard about earmarks lately, thank goodness. Republicans banned them when the Tea Party class came to Washington in 2010 opposed to the crony corruption. Who can forget pork-barrel embarrassments like the “Bridge to Nowhere,” the “Monuments to Me” projects that members got named after themselves, or the turtle tunnel in Florida (yes, it’s a tunnel for turtles)? Earmarks were everything Americans couldn’t stand about Washington – corrupt, wasteful, entitled, and out of touch.

“Given that the United States is the predominant funder of the Organization of American States it is of great concern that one of its international courts has issued an opinion recommending Costa Ricans to change their law,” Sen. Lee said. “The United States must do more to safeguard religious liberties around the world, prevent taxpayer dollars from funding ineffective international organizations, and most importantly uphold national sovereignty and the principles of subsidiarity.”

WASHINGTON - Today, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) issued the following statement after the Senate voted to invoke cloture on reauthorizing FISA surveillance provisions. “I am deeply disappointed by the vote tonight which empowered Senate leadership to forbid any amendments to our nation’s surveillance system. The new warrant provisions in this bill are filled with loopholes that any biased government agent can exploit, and tonight’s vote has made it much more likely that improperly obtained private conversations will be used for political gain."