WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans' ban on earmarks — money included in a bill by a lawmaker to benefit a home-state project or interest — was short-lived.
Only three days after GOP senators and senators-elect renounced earmarks, Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, the No. 2 Senate Republican, got himself a whopping $200 million to settle an Arizona Indian tribe's water rights claim against the government.
Kyl slipped the measure into a larger bill sought by President Barack Obama and passed by the Senate on Friday to settle claims by black farmers and American Indians against the federal government. Kyl's office insists the measure is not an earmark, and the House didn't deem it one when it considered a version earlier this year.
But it meets the know-it-when-you-see-it test, critics say. Under Senate rules, an earmark is a spending item inserted "primarily at the request of a senator" that goes "to an entity, or (is) targeted to a specific state."
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5 comments:
Oh my! A U.S. Senator may have lied to the public?
The ban is for the NEXT congress, not this one.
Regardless which Congress the ban is designed; any bill, in this case, should be judged, presented, and voted on as a stand alone valid bill. If it can stand this test, no earmark needed. We need help now, not in Jan. It appears as politics as usual to me.
The bill this was attached to was doing the same thing-- besides black farmers, native americans were being compensated.
Just one extra group being taken care of here. Nothing more.
This is where the TEA party comes in and takes notes for the next election. We need term limits!
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