The Washington DC Examiner Newspaper: Senators who haven’t yet gotten their earmark requests tucked into the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill were no doubt gladdened to hear yesterday that the deadline has been extended. That happy news came in an e-mail circulated on Capitol Hill yesterday from Senate Appropriation Committee aide Jeff Kratz. Now lawmakers have until May 4 to get those juicy pork barrel projects funded in the 2008 Labor/HHS/Education spending bill. . . .Remember right after the November elections when the Senate’s longtime “King of Pork,” Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) promised an “earmark moratorium” on 2007 spending? The moratorium was supposed to give the new Democratic majority time to pass the promised legislation that would shine needed light on the thousands of anonymous spending measures slipped into bills by senators and congressmen. Since Byrd was about to become Appropriations Committee chairman and was well-known for directing billions of dollars in earmarks to his home state, the moratorium was seen by many congressional reformers as an encouraging sign. Now we find that not only has the moratorium on 2007 spending bill earmarks been forgotten, senators are in the process of larding up 2008 bills as well. Both the Senate and the House have passed earmark reforms, but the Democratic leadership in both chambers is taking its time in resolving differences between the two measures. . . . [Read More]
Tags: Democrats, earmarks, pork, US Congress To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
0 comments:
Post a Comment