Senate Suspends Earmark Spending For Two Years

The man in charge of doling out federal dollars in the Senate, Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, announced Tuesday that his committee will implement a moratorium on earmarks for the next two fiscal years.

House Republicans swore off earmarks as part of their rules package after taking back the majority. GOPers in the Senate also vowed to abstain from the practice. On the Democratic side of the ledger, President Obama told Congress during his State of the Union address that he would veto bills that contain earmarks.

Those actions, Inouye said in a statement, forced the appropriator's hand, "Given the reality before us, it makes no sense to accept earmark requests that have no chance of being enacted into law."

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