After all that tea party la-di-da about earmarks, guess what!
Members of the House and the Senate attempted to pack hundreds of special spending provisions into at least 10 bills in the summer and fall, less than a year after congressional leaders declared a moratorium on earmarks, congressional records show. ...WaPo
The earmarkers lean right, at least judging from the Post's report. But for the most part it's a two-party sport. "Sport," though, is the wrong word. As we all know when our brains are in gear, a good portion of earmarks are important and necessary. In some cases, renewing funding for a specific cause ends up saving money in the future. Would it be a good idea to stop assisting research into corrosion? Probably not. On the other hand, defense-related projects are often waved through when, in fact, they are serial boondoggles.
The defense authorization bill was passed by the House, but Sutton’s and Hunter’s efforts were shot down, along with the other amendments, when the issue got to the Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee.
Subcommittee Chairman C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.) honored the moratorium and refused to allow any special provisions. But earmark critics such as McCaskill say the episode highlights how the moratorium rises and falls with the whim of each chairman.
“One way you can look at it is you can say people are trying to make an end run around the rules any way they can,” said Steve Ellis, vice president of the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense. “But on the flip side, you can say that they did get slapped down. Maybe it came out of indignation. ‘If I can’t play the earmarks game, you shouldn’t be able to either.’ But the rules held.” ...WaPo
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Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Penn.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) will team up on Wednesday to unveil legislation that would permanently ban earmarks in appropriations bills. ...The Hill
Mitch McConnell doesn't (yet?) support their effort. McConnell has been a frequent earmarker, according to The Hill but he was a supporter of the original two-year moratorium.
A bunch of semi-Dems support the "never again" ban.
... Moderate senators favor abandoning pork. Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) voted last November to put a moratorium in place.
An aide said that McCaskill and Toomey are just starting their effort to build support for a permanent ban and said they are not pushing for a vote anytime soon.
An aide who opposes the ban said senators are already chaffing under the temporary ban.
The aide also worried that the McCaskill-Toomey effort would complicate an already difficult December calendar for the Senate during which Reid will try to move a $900 billion omnibus spending bill devoid of earmarks. ...The Hill
