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Senators vote to preserve back-home pet projects
By ANDREW TAYLOR
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Members of both parties Monday voted to keep their cherished home-state projects as the Senate resumed debate on a spending bill covering foreign aid and domestic agency budgets. By a 63-32 vote, lawmakers rejected a bid by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to effectively strip about 8,000 of those earmarks from the $410 billion measure.
"If the president really wants to change Washington, as soon as this bill reaches his desk, he should veto it and send it back and say, 'Clean it up,'" McCain said.
Instead, the White House says President Barack Obama will sign the measure, despite all the projects. During last year's campaign, Obama he promised to cut the number of earmarks way back and institute other changes.
But lawmakers in both parties defend the practice, and 10 Republican joined most Democrats to defeat McCain's amendment.
~snip~
The bill has 7,991 pet projects totaling $5.5 billion, according to calculations by the GOP staff of the House Appropriations Committee.
A difficult vote was ahead on an amendment by Sen. David Vitter, R-La., to scrap the current congressional pay system. It gives automatic cost-of-living pay raises to members of Congress unless they act the deny themselves a raise.
"At a time when so many Americans are losing their jobs and struggling to pay their mortgages, these raises just aren't right," Vitter said. "Most Americans don't have a formula at their job that gives them automatic pay raises, and Congress shouldn't either."
Lawmakers now make $174,000 a year, having received a $4,700 raise in January.
The pending bill would deny lawmakers the raise they are due next January.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has introduced a separate bill to end the annual adjustment, but it's not clear how serious he is about trying to advance it.
Senators vote to preserve back-home pet projects -- GOPUSA
Obama plans to sign this bill, even with all the added pork pet projects, When will he keep that campaign promise to disallow earmarks and pork projects?
By ANDREW TAYLOR
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Members of both parties Monday voted to keep their cherished home-state projects as the Senate resumed debate on a spending bill covering foreign aid and domestic agency budgets. By a 63-32 vote, lawmakers rejected a bid by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to effectively strip about 8,000 of those earmarks from the $410 billion measure.
"If the president really wants to change Washington, as soon as this bill reaches his desk, he should veto it and send it back and say, 'Clean it up,'" McCain said.
Instead, the White House says President Barack Obama will sign the measure, despite all the projects. During last year's campaign, Obama he promised to cut the number of earmarks way back and institute other changes.
But lawmakers in both parties defend the practice, and 10 Republican joined most Democrats to defeat McCain's amendment.
~snip~
The bill has 7,991 pet projects totaling $5.5 billion, according to calculations by the GOP staff of the House Appropriations Committee.
A difficult vote was ahead on an amendment by Sen. David Vitter, R-La., to scrap the current congressional pay system. It gives automatic cost-of-living pay raises to members of Congress unless they act the deny themselves a raise.
"At a time when so many Americans are losing their jobs and struggling to pay their mortgages, these raises just aren't right," Vitter said. "Most Americans don't have a formula at their job that gives them automatic pay raises, and Congress shouldn't either."
Lawmakers now make $174,000 a year, having received a $4,700 raise in January.
The pending bill would deny lawmakers the raise they are due next January.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has introduced a separate bill to end the annual adjustment, but it's not clear how serious he is about trying to advance it.
Senators vote to preserve back-home pet projects -- GOPUSA
Obama plans to sign this bill, even with all the added pork pet projects, When will he keep that campaign promise to disallow earmarks and pork projects?
