Senate Democrats are moving aggressively to pass a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill that will test President Obama’s resolve on opposing congressional earmarks.
The 1,924-page bill would set aside funding for thousands of earmarks, according to Senate aides tracking the legislation.
Obama last month called for an earmark ban, saying in one of his weekly addresses that “we can’t afford” these items inserted by members of Congress “without adequate review.”
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) on Tuesday called on Obama to intervene in the Senate’s deliberations.
“It would be helpful if he said, ‘Don’t pass a bunch of earmarks,’ ” said Coburn, who asserted that the GOP will not have adequate time to review the massive bill.
Senate appropriators explicitly defied Obama by including $450 million for a second F-35 Joint Strike Fighter engine made by General Electric and Rolls-Royce.
Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates say the engine is not needed and have repeatedly invoked a veto threat.
A Senate Democratic aide, however, noted the earmarks, taken together, account for less than 1 percent of the total spending package, which is $19 billion more than current funding levels.
Taxpayers for Common Sense, a non-partisan group that tracks federal spending, said Tuesday evening it had found 6,600 earmarks worth $8 billion — $2 billion less than the amount spent on earmarks in the fiscal year 2010 spending bills.
More here
The 1,924-page bill would set aside funding for thousands of earmarks, according to Senate aides tracking the legislation.
Obama last month called for an earmark ban, saying in one of his weekly addresses that “we can’t afford” these items inserted by members of Congress “without adequate review.”
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) on Tuesday called on Obama to intervene in the Senate’s deliberations.
“It would be helpful if he said, ‘Don’t pass a bunch of earmarks,’ ” said Coburn, who asserted that the GOP will not have adequate time to review the massive bill.
Senate appropriators explicitly defied Obama by including $450 million for a second F-35 Joint Strike Fighter engine made by General Electric and Rolls-Royce.
Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates say the engine is not needed and have repeatedly invoked a veto threat.
A Senate Democratic aide, however, noted the earmarks, taken together, account for less than 1 percent of the total spending package, which is $19 billion more than current funding levels.
Taxpayers for Common Sense, a non-partisan group that tracks federal spending, said Tuesday evening it had found 6,600 earmarks worth $8 billion — $2 billion less than the amount spent on earmarks in the fiscal year 2010 spending bills.
More here
4 comments:
I don't care if the earmarks are less than 1% or they are 10%!
They all need to stop this stuff.
You want something passed for your state or your buddies, then put it in a bill all by itself or group the earmarks together in groups of just that but stop this mess of adding earmarks to bills that mean something! THIS is one of the biggest problems in Washington and people want to keep calling out the whitehouse for transparency?
There's no transparency here, there's just the opposite. They do it this way HOPING nobody will notice what they're doing!
I'd say the next round of vote outs needs to be EVERY Senator or Congressman (women too) who puts earmarks on bills.
We need to get these people OUT!
At least there are no earmarks in the bill from Republicans. Oh, wait...
Never mind.
12:34
The earmarks were put into this bill months and months ago. Reid has been sitting on this bill til now to try and sneak it thru.
Since the earmarks were put in, we've had an election and the Republicans now get it and will vote against the bill
Oh please! I KNEW this was all going to become about Reid. Just last night we saw a listing of the earmarks in this bill.
How many were Democrat and how many were Republican?
MANY more Republican!
One other thing, IF the Republicans were being truthful about ending earmarks, they've had opportunity to remove the earmarks from this bill not matter when they were proposed before it goes to vote! You sound like another citizen who's been brainwashed into thinking these guys work for US!
So I say again, Oh Please!
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