Fight the Omnibus

Reid Pulls Controversial $1.2 Trillion Spending Bill in Favor of Short-Term Budget Fix
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., pauses while speaking with the media, after their Senate Democratic Caucus, Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2010, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, bowing to Republican opposition to a 1,924-page $1.2 Trillion spending measure packed with Earmarks, withdrew the bill and said he would work with Republican leaders on a smaller, short-term Budget fix to avoid a looming government shutdown. The government already is operating on a te...

Defeat 6 Weeks Too Late Is Still Sweet
Last night, Harry Reid pulled the pork-filled omnibus spending bill , agreeing to a 1-page CR to fund the government through the holidays: After wrestling with, and finally abandoning, a 1,900-page catch-all spending bill stuffed with more than $8 billion in home-state projects known as Earmarks in Washington and pork in the rest of the country, Senate leaders need to come up with a measure to keep the Federal Government running into early next year. Nearly $1.3 Trillion in unfinished Budget wo...

Harry Reid Pulls Massive Omnibus Spending Bill; Mitch McConnell Reacts Video 12/16/10
Here is video of GOP Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reacting to news that Democrat Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid had pulled the massive $1.1 Trillion Omnibus Spending Bill because he did not have the 60-votes for Cloture - which would bring it up for an Up or Down vote. The massive bill was filled with more than 39,000 Earmarks, and was 1,924-pages long . This means some kind of continuing resolution will likely be needed to fund the Government until the new Congress can act in J...

Harry Reid Pulls Massive Omnibus Spending Bill; Mitch McConnell Reacts Video 12/16/10
Here is video of GOP Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reacting to news that Democrat Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid had pulled the massive $1.1 Trillion Omnibus Spending Bill because he did not have the 60-votes for Cloture - which would bring it up for an Up or Down vote. The massive bill was filled with more than 39,000 Earmarks, and was 1,924-pages long . This means some kind of continuing resolution will likely be needed to fund the Government until the new Congress can act in J...

The earmark difference in 2010
Image via Wikipedia Byron York: Press coverage of the Budget frenzy on Capitol Hill has suggested that pork-barrel earmark spending is still a Bipartisan problem, that after months of self-righteous Rhetoric about fiscal discipline, Republicans and Democrats remain equal-opportunity earmarkers. It's not true. A new analysis by a group of federal-spending Watchdogs shows a striking imbalance between the parties when it comes to earmark requests. Democrats remain raging spenders, while Republica...

The omnibus blows an engine
I think it is unanimous, at least on the right, that the withdrawal of the Democrat’s omnibus 1.2 Trillion dollar spending bill - larded with over 6,600 Earmarks - is a “good thing”.  Instead we can hope that a continuing resolution keeping funding at current levels (or reduced - that wouldn’t hurt my feelings at all) is passed.  Sen. Mitch McConnell was waiving around a one-page bill yesterday that essentially does that. One page.  Imagine. Not almos

House Passes Extension of Bush Tax Cuts
Thursday night, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to extend the Bush-era Tax Cuts for two years. However, many Democrats aren't happy with the Compromise. It took months of fierce negotiation and contentious compromises and many Democrats fought up to the last minute. "What this bill represents is a complete surrender of Democratic principles," said Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass. "This bill will kill our Children with very little benefit at the moment," said Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass. In...

Republicans kill omnibus bill, including their own earmarks
A $1.1 Trillion omnibus bill that included $8 billion in Earmarks from lawmakers who opposed them was pulled from the Senate after Majority Leader Harry Reid acknowledged that he did not have the votes to withstand a Republican Filibuster. All 42 Republicans had threatened to filibuster the bill, despite the fact that two Republican Senators — Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker of Mississippi — requested $561 million and $449 million in earmarks. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell req...

Murray No. 5 in earmarks; Cantwell is No. 50
WASHINGTON -- The Republicans scuttled the $1.2 Trillion federal spending bill late Thursday night, in part because they objected to the inclusion of some $8.3 billion worth of congressional pet projects called Earmarks. Yet it's still worth noting that Sen. Patty Murray had the fifth-highest earmark total out of 89 senators, according to an on-going analysis by Taxpayer for Common Sense. Murray had 201 earmarks totaling nearly $249 million. Washington's junior senator, Maria Cantwell, ranked ...

White House: Pass giant year-end spending bill
WASHINGTON -- The White House is pressing for passage of a $1.27 Trillion year-end spending bill despite the inclusion of thousands of congressional pet projects that President Barack Obama had vowed to oppose. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters Thursday that Obama would prefer a bill without Earmarks. But he said that Defense Secretary Robert Gates had told Obama that the Legislation is necessary because it contains key financing for National Security - including $158 billion ...

Earmarks, Spending, and the Scope of the Federal Government
The Washington Post reported yesterday that Republican senators were turning their back on a massive spending bill stuffed full of their own Earmarks. Those earmarks, the Post noted, included quite a few to benefit Mississippi, the home state of Senators Roger Wicker and Thad Cochran: Wicker, along with Cochran, had by then already sponsored earmarks in the spending bill that would fund an airport expansion in Tunica ($1.75 million), new riverwalk lights in Columbus ($300,000), improvements to a...

With Omnibus Dead, How Will The Government Fund Health Reform Implementation?
Last night, citing overwhelming opposition from Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) dropped the omnibus spending package that included some $1 billion in funding for health reform and instead opted for a much smaller continuing resolution (CR) to extend federal spending authority into the new year. With the defeat of the omnibus, Republicans are pushing Reid to issue a CR at the 2008 levels, which may not include additional Health Care dollars since the Affordable Care Act p...

Earmark Debate a Mixed Bag for White House
(Credit: AP Photo/Susan Walsh) It's back to the drawing board in the Congress, as the two parties and the two chambers need to figure out how to fund the government for the next year. Last night Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pulled the collection of spending bills, called the Omnibus Bill, from the floor because much-needed Republican support eroded as the furor over Earmarks in the bill made Republicans balk. While the decision is not a clear loss for the Democrats, or a clear w...

Obamas bounce
Now that Congress passed the Trillion-dollar bill, Krauthammer sees Obama as The new comeback kid Obama had a bad November. Self-confessedly shellacked in the Midterm Election, he fled the scene to Asia and various unsuccessful meetings, only to return to a sad-sack lame-duck Congress with ghostly dozens of defeated Democrats wandering the halls. Now, with his stunning tax deal, Obama is back. Holding no high cards, he nonetheless managed to resurface suddenly not just as a player but as orche...

The Omnibus Falls
As he stepped into a Capitol elevator late Thursday, bundled up in preparation for the winter winds, Sen. Mitch McConnell cracked a thin smile. For the low-key leader of Senate Republicans, good spirits were certainly in order. Minutes before, his cross-aisle counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, had sounded a death knell for the much-maligned $1.1 Trillion omnibus spending package — the pork-packed keystone of the Democratic lame-duck agenda. McConnell, in an interview with Nati...

How They Learned to Start Worrying and Stop Appropriating
The omnibus spending bill died in the Senate last night, and the death was a long time coming. It started to bleed in 2006, when a series of rule changes and the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act were passed, opening up the process by which bills were marked up to public scrutiny. It got a good hard kick in December 2009, when President Obama signed that year's omnibus, but only after an angry Speech declaring that the bill had to "mark an end to the old way of doing business a...

The Demise of the Omnibus
They almost got away with it, and they may try again. Congressional Democratic leaders planned all along to basically do nothing during the months leading up to the November election — and then, in a lame-duck session, unveil a bloated, business-as-usual spending bill and use the press of the Christmas break to force members into passing it before they adjourned. This approach would allow them to keep doing what they always do — perpetuate every federal agency and spending program ev...

Lawmakers stretching out Russia nuke pact debate
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's call for a world without Nuclear Weapons divided Republicans and Democrats on Friday as the Senate slogged through debate on a new Arms Control treaty with Russia. Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona argued that the treaty would be a step toward an unrealistic quest. "I think it's difficult if not impossible to achieve and I question whether it's a good idea at all," Kyl said, arguing that the goal and the treaty divert attention from dealing with rea...

Senate Dem leader drops nearly $1.3T spending bill
WASHINGTON — After wrestling with — and finally abandoning — a 1,900-page catchall spending bill stuffed with more than $8 billion in home-state projects known as Earmarks in Washington and pork in the rest of the country, Senate leaders turned Friday to devising a measure to keep the Federal Government running into early next year. Nearly $1.3 Trillion in unfinished Budget work needed to keep the government running was packed into the spending measure, including $1...

Senate leaders drops $1.3 trillion spending bill
WASHINGTON (AP) - After wrestling with—and finally abandoning—a 1,900-page catchall spending bill stuffed with more than $8 billion in home-state projects known as Earmarks in Washington and pork in the rest of the country, Senate leaders turned Friday to devising a measure to keep the federal government running into early next year. Nearly $1.3 Trillion in unfinished Budget work needed to keep the government running was packed into the spending measure, including $158 billion for mil...

Sen. Durbin blasts GOP horror at $1.1 trillion: Thats exactly the amount they asked for
Stumble This! Senate Republicans have been expressing outrage over the $1.1 Trillion allotted to the government in the omnibus spending bill, but the number should not come as a surprise. In January, Republicans proposed a $1.1 Trillion cap for the 2011 fiscal year to fight "Washington's voracious appetite for spending." Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) reminded them of the fact on the Senate floor Thursday, saying it's true there is "$1.1 Trillion in this bill" but "that's exactly the ...

Republicans Beat the Omnibus, Give More Power to Obama.
Last night, Republicans walked out of an agreement they had negotiated with Democrats in recent months, killing a spending bill that would have kept government functioning through the new year. Ostensibly, this is due to Republicans' new objections to Earmarks, which mean that top Republicans like Mitch McConnell and Thad Cochran turned their back on a bill they had shaped with millions of dollars for their home states. Dave Weigel observes John McCain and newly elected Sen. Mark Kirk in a bout ...

Session Suddenly Not So Lame
It's increasingly apparent that the Congress which hadn't gotten a whole lot done since the enactment of health reform Legislation may well go out with a flurry of genuinely significant activity. The tax deal cleared Congress last night, even as the Senate killed an omnibus appropriations bill leaving most Discretionary Spending decisions to the next session. And it looks like the Repeal of DADT is back on track for a stand-alone vote. Prospects for ratification of START are less robust, but t...

Session Suddenly Not So Lame
It's increasingly apparent that the Congress which hadn't gotten a whole lot done since the enactment of health reform Legislation may well go out with a flurry of genuinely significant activity. The tax deal cleared Congress last night, even as the Senate killed an omnibus appropriations bill leaving most Discretionary Spending decisions to the next session. And it looks like the Repeal of DADT is back on track for a stand-alone vote. Prospects for ratification of START are less robust, but t...

This Week on JudicialNominations.org
On Thursday, the Senate unanimously confirmed four District Court judges, leaving 38 pending federal judicial nominees, reports Politico. Catherine Eagles, Kimberly Mueller, John Gibney, and James Bredar, all of whom previously had been unanimously endorsed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, are the first of President Obama's judicial nominees to be confirmed since September. and the District Court nominees who have experienced the longest delays. In a Press Release, Chairman Patrick Leahy comme...