In 2008, Barack Obama pledged to require more disclosure and a waiting period for earmarks -- a way of directing federal funding toward a specific purpose at the request of a lawmaker. Critics have long argued that earmarks are likelier to serve the interest of a particular congressional district or constituent group than the national good.

Now, at the end of Obama's presidency, we can say with certainty that his pledge to impose stiffer disclosure rules and waiting periods has been overtaken by events: Congressional earmarks essentially don't exist any more.

We last looked at this promise in 2009, when earmarks were still being used. But after the Republicans flipped control of the previously Democratic House in the 2010 elections, they implemented a moratorium on earmarks that remains in force. The Senate, then controlled by Democrats, also announced a moratorium, and that has continued under the chamber's Republican majority that took power after the 2014 elections.

The enactment of the moratorium has proven "satisfactory" to Taxpayers for Common Sense, one of the leading groups that opposed earmarks, said the group's vice president, Steve Ellis.

So if earmarks have essentially disappeared, the promise by Obama to disclose them and enact waiting periods to curb their influence have been rendered moot. The goal this promise was intended to advance has already been accomplished. So we rate this a Promise Kept.