Senators Vote to Ban Earmarks - Then Grab Them

Senators vote to ban earmarks _ then grab them
WASHINGTON — Twenty-five senators, most Republicans, who recently voted to ban homestate projects are claiming hundreds of Earmarks in an almost $1.3 Trillion bill to fund most federal programs and agencies until next year. Republicans are calling the 1,924-page bill a pork-filled mess and accusing Democrats of trying to jam it through Congress with minimal debate and little if any opportunity to make changes. Some GOP senators voiced outrage but made no effort to dump their own earmarks...

Senators vote to ban earmarks -- then grab them
WASHINGTON—More than two dozen senators, most Republicans, who recently voted to ban homestate projects are claiming hundreds of Earmarks in an almost $1.3 Trillion bill to fund most federal programs and agencies into next fall. Republicans are calling the 1,924-page bill a pork-filled mess and accusing Democrats of trying to jam it through Congress with minimal debate and little if any opportunity to make changes. Some GOP senators voiced outrage but made no effort to dump their own earm...

Senators wanting earmark ban end up grabbing them
WASHINGTON (AP) - More than two dozen senators—most of them Republicans—put hundreds of homestate projects in the $1.3 Trillion bill to fund the Federal Government even though they recently voted to ban so-called Earmarks. The effort to pass the 1,924-page bill collapsed Thursday night after complaints by Conservatives over its complexity and size and the relatively few days to be devoted to debating its merits. Anti-spending Tea Party Activists were angry, too, especially since they ...

Senators vote to ban earmarks _ then grab them
Twenty-five senators, most Republicans, who recently voted to ban homestate projects are claiming hundreds of Earmarks in an almost $1.3 Trillion bill to fund most federal programs and agencies until next year. Republicans are calling the 1,924-page bill a pork-filled mess and accusing Democrats of trying to jam it through Congress with minimal debate and little if any opportunity to make changes. Some GOP senators voiced outrage but made no effort to dump their own Earmarks from the Legislation...

Senators vote to ban earmarks _ then grab them
WASHINGTON (AP) - More than two dozen senators, most Republicans, who recently voted to ban homestate projects are claiming hundreds of Earmarks in an almost $1.3 Trillion bill to fund most federal programs and agencies into next fall. Republicans are calling the 1,924-page bill a pork-filled mess and accusing Democrats of trying to jam it through Congress with minimal debate and little if any opportunity to make changes. Some GOP senators voiced outrage but made no effort to dump their own ear...

Senators vote to ban earmarks _ then grab them
WASHINGTON (AP) — Twenty-five senators, most Republicans, who recently voted to ban homestate projects are claiming hundreds of earmarks in an almost $1.3 trillion bill to fund most federal programs and agencies until next year. Republicans are calling the 1,924-page bill a pork-filled mess and accusing Democrats of trying to jam it through Congress with minimal debate and little if any opportunity to make changes. Some GOP senators voiced outrage but made no effort to dump their own earma...

Oops! How the Food Safety Bill Passed Congress, But Really Didn't
ABC News’ Matthew Jaffe reports: Congress has a lot of odd rules, but one of the more basic ones is that revenue measures must originate in the House of Representatives, not the Senate. That rule now appears to have caused the demise of the Food Safety bill. Yes, the Food Safety bill that passed the House and then passed the Senate now looks unlikely to pass Congress this year. How? It’s a long story, but it starts well over a year ago. In July 2009 the House passed a sweeping food safety...

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...

Food safety bill could die (the one that already passed)
Source: CNN Washington (CNN) -- A sweeping Food Safety bill that passed the House and Senate earlier this year before stalling because of a legislative technicality now will likely die because Republicans object to giving it quick approval in the waning days of the congressional session, Senate leadership aides on both sides of the aisle said Friday. The bill, designed to increase government inspections of the food supply in the wake of recent deadly food borne disease outbreaks, originally pass...

Fight over alternate engine coming up in Senate
WASHINGTON-The omnibus Budget unveiled by Senate Democrats Tuesday includes 6,600 Earmarks worth an estimated $8 billion. But one in particular has caught the attention of Connecticut's congressional delegation: a $450 million provision to fund an alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Sens. Joseph Lieberman, an independent, and Chris Dodd, a Democrat, both said they would try to strip the alternate engine funding from the Legislation when it comes to the Senate floor sometime thi...

Many Senators Who Voted to Ban Earmarks Also Pushed Pet Projects
WASHINGTON — Dozens of senators who voted to ban the practice of earmarking nevertheless requested nearly $1 billion for pet projects in the spending bill released Tuesday. The latest on President Obama, the new Congress and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion. The $1.2 Trillion measure includes more than 6,700 Earmarks totaling $8.1 billion, according to data from Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington Watchdog group, including millions from 24 of the ...

Republican Earmark Hypocrisy [Now WHO Could Have Predicted THIS?]
Who knew that Republicans would abandon their election promises so quickly? This entry was posted in Earmarks, National Politics, US Senate and tagged broken promises, Congress, conservative, earmarks, hypocrisy, John Cornyn, John Thune, politics, republican party, Tea Party. Bookmark the permalink. » Get Skype, call free! ...

GOP Senate Aide: The Bill Wasnt Going to Be Read
At one point yesterday, according to a Senate Republican leadership aide, Democrats were telling reporters to “watch the floor” for action on the Omnibus Bill. GOP critics had pushed for all 1,924 pages of the Legislation to read aloud by Senate clerks — which would have taken an estimated 50 hours — but Democrats were planning to block this maneuver using a procedural trick. “The bill wasn’t going to be read,” says the Republican aide. “We were go...

Extension Of Bush Tax Cuts Passes; Pork Laden Spending Bill Goes Down
So I’m sure you’ve heard by now. The House of Representatives passed the bill that will extend the Bush Tax Cuts, renew Unemployment Benefits for 13 months, and cut Social Security taxes for one year late last night. The roll call showed it was a total landslide at 277-148. Democrats had 139 yeas and 112 nays while the Republicans has 138-36 Go here to see the roll call and find out how they voted. The Democrats tried to pass a higher estate tax but that went down in flames also at 2...

GOP senators ready to vote against 'don't ask, don't tell,' aides say
Washington (CNN) -- Four key GOP senators who have announced their support for a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Repeal are prepared to join Democrats in voting to let the bill proceed, as long as Congress first deals with a measure to fund the government, aides to the four said Friday. The aides said Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, Lisa Murkowski and Scott Brown will vote Saturday to end debate on the ban on Openly Gay and Lesbian people in the Military if the Senate passes a stopgap spending b...

Republican senators say they'll vote against their own earmarks
The port city of Pascagoula on Mississippi's Gulf Coast wants to build a beach promenade, with new benches, lush landscaping and a lighted pathway for joggers, cyclists and dog walkers. This Story Republican senators say they'll vote against their own Earmarks West Wing Briefing: Poll on tax deal hints Obama still hasn't sold public Pimco's Kashkari Says No `Hard Choices' Made in Tax Plan Recession pushed down tax 'burden' Declining revenue Senate spending bill contains thousands of Earmarks ...

U.S. Senate Extends Bush Tax Cuts
Despite opposition from a handful from each party, the U.S. Senate voted Wednesday on a tax deal that extends Tax Cuts initially backed by George W. Bush for all Americans. The measure passed 81 to 19 with both of Florida’s senators -- Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican George Lemieux -- voting in favor.  The Senate extends the Tax Cuts that Bush supported back in 2001 and later in 2003 until 2012 -- virtually guaranteeing that the issue will be a factor in the 2012 Elections when P...

Gates Backs Omnibus Spending Bill
Politico reports: Defense Secretary Robert Gates threw his support Wednesday behind the Senate’s omnibus spending bill, saying it would be far better for the Military than subjecting the Pentagon to a yearlong continuing resolution passed by the House last week. The Endorsement was striking both for the strength of Gates’ wording and the fact that he entirely skipped over his ongoing dispute with the Senate Appropriations Committee over a second alternative engine for the F-35 Joint St...

The Perils of Constitutional Ignorance
The Food Safety bill is almost certainly dead. Why? Don’t blame it on GOP obstructionism — while Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) robustly opposed the bill, citing its unpaid-for $1.4 billion Price Tag, and its new (and ineffective, he argued) regulations, that didn’t stop plenty of Republican senators from backing it. Instead, it’s because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid forgot about that pesky constitutional requirement that all taxes originate in the House. Here’s t...

With big spending bill's demise, is 'earmark' new dirty word on Hill?
Deficit hawks and Watchdog groups see Thursday's demise of an omnibus spending bill in the Senate as a turning point. A critical mass of lawmakers, they say, are committed to an earmark ban. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., holds a copy of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington Thursday. There was no last hurrah for Earmarks - known to supporters as “congressionally mandated spending,” and to critics a...

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...

Earmarkers feast on pork one last time before diet
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., left, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., walk on Capitol Hill in Washington Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2010. The spending barons on Capitol Hill, long used to muscling past opponents of bills larded with pet projects, are seeking one last victory before Tea Party-backed GOP Insurgents storm Congress intent on ending the good old days of pork-barrel politics. You might call it the last running of the old bulls in Congress. In the waning days of the Lame Duck congressional session,...

Parties no longer equal on pork
The defeat last night of the OmniPorkulus bill, as the Boss Emeritus calls it, gives us a chance to revisit the long-held — and long-true — belief that both parties are equally addicted to pork-barrel spending.  That certainly proved true enough when Republicans held power, as Earmarks skyrocketed and both parties squealed with delight at the trough.  However, a new study by a coalition of of Watchdog groups on the FY2011 Budget proposal shows that one party has made great stride...

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...

A vow to vote down their own earmarks
The port city of Pascagoula on Mississippi's Gulf Coast wants to build a beach promenade, with new benches, lush landscaping and a lighted pathway for joggers, cyclists and dog walkers. So the municipality of 24,000 hired a pair of Washington Lobbyists. The city shelled out $40,000 a year, according to Public Records, to retain Jeffrey Brooks and Wayne Weidie. They are former top aides to Gulf Coast congressmen and frequent Donors to Mississippi's elected officials. The lobbyists parlayed th...