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GOP senators hunt for Democratic earmarks |
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By Kevin Bogardus and Manu Raju
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Posted: 10/24/07 07:03 PM [ET] |
Following in the footsteps of their House counterparts, Senate GOP budget hawks have targeted more Democrats than Republicans in their hunt for earmarks.
Based on a review of the amendments filed to the six appropriations bills brought to the Senate floor so far, Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) have targeted 13 specific earmarked projects — nine of which were sponsored solely by Democrats.
This includes the successful attack on a high-profile earmark backed by the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). In a vote last week, Coburn won a vote to cut $1 million in funds for a museum detailing the 1969 Woodstock music festival. The request was co-sponsored by Clinton and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).
Only three of the 13 earmarks targeted were sponsored exclusively by Republicans.
In the House, earmark critic Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and other fiscal conservatives targeted 20 earmarks in the first six spending bills, with only four sponsored exclusively by Republicans.
Despite these figures, Coburn insisted his quest to cut spending was not about party but about spending priorities. “We never look at who they are, we look at what it is,” Coburn said. “I’m equally grievous towards both groups that want earmarks.”
The 13 earmarks targeted by Coburn and DeMint would cost more than $10 million. Separately, Coburn has also sponsored several provisions to ban all earmarks in spending bills.
Several of the earmarks targeted by the two conservative senators are attached to the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill that was being considered Tuesday.
Democrats have noticed the trend, and some who have seen their projects targeted, such as Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), have been critical of Coburn.
“There’s probably some effort to look at more Democratic earmarks than Republican earmarks, because it looks as if that’s what’s happening on the Senate floor,” Landrieu said.
Coburn unsuccessfully challenged a $400,000 earmark that Landrieu placed in the transportation appropriations bill. The earmark provided funds for the Wetland Center in Lake Charles, La.
While Coburn is “genuine” in his desire to rid spending bills of earmarks, Landrieu said there also seems to be an effort to go after earmarks sponsored by members, such as herself, who are up for reelection in 2008. Landrieu is one of the few sitting Democratic senators who could be vulnerable next year.
“I do think there’s a concerted effort to go after people that are in cycle — and that just [is] the nature of being in cycle,” she said.
“We don’t want to appear partisan,” said DeMint. “But as we go through this, we are going to make sure we balance this out a little more.”
Although earmarks sponsored by Democrats represent the majority of those targeted by DeMint and Coburn, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) has seen two of his earmarks taken to task by Coburn — more than any other lawmaker. Shelby’s projects survived in a lopsided floor vote.
“Providing funds for meritorious projects is one of the best ways I can represent Alabama in the U.S. Senate,” said Shelby.
Republican aides said the attacks on earmarks like Clinton’s “hippie museum” can also score the GOP political points. While arguments that Democrats have exceeded President Bush’s budget by $22 billion in discretionary spending are lost on the general public, it is easy to point to a Woodstock museum as an example of wasteful spending, they said.
Since his election to the Senate in 2004, Coburn has gained a national reputation for battling earmarks and at times has attracted scorn from members of both parties. DeMint, who like Coburn arrived in the Senate in 2004, has also become a champion against earmarks.
In the last Congress, Coburn went after projects backed by senior Republicans. He lost fights trying to end funding for an Alaskan bridge known as the “Bridge to Nowhere” backed by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), and a railway expansion project in Mississippi supported by Sens. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Thad Cochran (R-Miss.).
Coburn has sometimes provided carrots with his sticks, although this tactic has not won many votes. Unlike in the House, where budget hawks just try to strip earmarks, Coburn’s measures sometime offer to transfer funding from projects to larger priorities, such as children’s health insurance or bridges in disrepair.
In addition, both Coburn and DeMint have made it more difficult to earmark at all. For example, DeMint won adoption of an amendment by voice vote last week to ban “phonemarking” — the practice of lawmakers calling and writing to federal agencies to direct their spending.
“While we are not winning the votes here, we are winning the battle outside the Beltway,” said DeMint. “That is where the pressure is going to build on the inside here.” |
