If Congress wants to go back to its old earmarking ways, setting aside money for pet projects, wouldn’t the contentious, shutdown-ending budget bill that finally passed on Wednesday be the last place to tuck away some goodies?
Yes. But this is Congress. They can’t help themselves.
According to the Associated Press, the bill contains spending for upgrading a lock in the Ohio River between Illinois and Kentucky; money to help Colorado rebuild roads washed away by last month's catastrophic floods; extra money to help the Veterans Affairs Department whittle down a backlog of disabilities claims; and permission for the Pentagon to keep helping African nations hunt a notorious warlord.
“These people are like alcoholics. They can’t resist taking a drink, It’s ridiculous. It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Sen. John McCain told The Daily Beast.
Referring to a $2.9 billion water project inserted into the bill – already labeled the “Kentucky Kickback” by conservative critics of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell – McCain railed on:
“It should have gone through the normal legislative process. It …shows that there are people in this body (who) are willing to use any occasion to get an outrageous pork barrel project done at the cost of millions and millions of dollars. It’s disgusting.”
McConnell’s staff insists that the Kentucky senator played no role in adding language to the bill that increases the spending cap to upgrade the Olmstead lock on the Ohio River from $775 million to $2.9 billion.
It doesn’t help McConnell, who faces a tea party primary challenge in the 2014 elections, that this project has been plagued by 25 years of delays, engineering mistakes and cost overruns.
It also doesn’t help McConnell that the two states that would benefit from the Ohio River improvements are represented by two of the Senate's most powerful members: the Republican leader, McConnell, and No. 2 Democratic leader, Richard Durbin of Illinois.
So, it’s no surprise that the Senate Conservative Fund, which may back McConnell’s election opponent, called the spending authorization quietly placed into the budget/debt ceiling bill “an insult to all Kentucky families.”
Aides to Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the leaders of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee have tried to come to the rescue. They say that the subcommittee, which oversees water projects, had requested the provision, with the support of the White House.
The AP points out that the 35-page bill had only a handful of narrowly aimed provisions that resemble earmarks. That's a far cry from years ago, when spending bills would be studded with hundreds of earmarks designed to enamor a lawmaker with his or her constituents.
In addition, Capitol Hill supporters of the provisions tucked into the shutdown-ending bill say that they are related to urgent needs that were exacerbated by the 2 ½-week closure of much of the government.
Here’s how AP’s Alan Fram reported on the situation:
In a boon for flood-battered Colorado, the measure would lift the usual $100 million limit on Federal Highway Administration emergency highway aid to $450 million for the state. Colorado officials have said last month's flooding destroyed 200 miles of roads and 50 bridges.
The legislation, which keeps federal agencies functioning through Jan. 15, provides an extra $294 million during that period for the Veterans Affairs Department's efforts to reduce backlogged claims, along with an additional $100 million to prevent furloughs of air traffic controllers and safety inspectors, and extra money for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to continue work on two weather satellites.
It also:
* Lets the Defense Department continue assisting African forces pursue Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group accused of atrocities.
* Provides extra money for contracts with private companies whose ships move American troops and their equipment overseas.
* Supplies $600 million for Forest Service firefighting and $36 million for Interior Department firefighting.
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