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Senate Passes Huge Spending Bill for Obama

The Senate was scheduled to vote Tuesday and send the $410 billion bill chock full of lawmakers’ pet projects and significant increases in food aid for the poor, energy research and other programs to President Obama.

WASHINGTON — Congress on Tuesday cleared a $410 billion measure to fund the government for President Obama’s signature, a measure denounced by most Republicans as an example of reckless spending.

The Senate approved the measure by voice after it cleared a key procedural hurdle by a 62-35 vote. Sixty votes were required to shut down debate.

Obama will sign the measure Wednesday, the White House said, but he will also announce steps aimed at curbing lawmakers’ penchant for pet projects.

The $410 billion bill is chock-full of lawmakers’ pet projects and significant increases in food aid for the poor, energy research and other programs. It was supposed to have been completed last fall.

The bill ran into an unexpected political hailstorm in Congress after Obama’s spending-heavy economic stimulus bill and his 2010 budget plan forecasting a $1.8 trillion deficit for the current budget year. And Republicans seized on Obama’s willingness to sign a bill packed with pet projects after he assailed them as a candidate.

FOX:

Winners and Losers in the Proposed Massive Spending Bill
With nearly 9,000 earmarks in this year’s omnibus spending bill, FOX News breaks down what states win and what states lose.

By William Lajeunesse

Bringing home the bacon is a Washington tradition, and as the $410 billion spending bill indicates, this year is no different. The Senate is battling over the massive Omnibus for the 2009 fiscal year, which passed the House last Wednesday but was blocked the next day by Senate members on both sides of the aisle who said it contained too much wasteful government spending.

Republicans and Democrats say it is likely to pass this week. And if it does, with its almost 9,000 earmarks, some states are set to become clear winners, while others states are poised to lose big.

Using data from the citizen watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, Fox News crunched the numbers to determine the biggest winners and losers among the states.

On the House side, second-term Rep. Mazie Hirono, (D-Hawaii) secured the most earmark projects in the proposed spending bill, totaling $138 million. The top Republican is former presidential contender and self-proclaimed fiscal conservative Ron Paul, (R-Texas), who could stand to get $73.7 million in earmarks.

On the Senate side, no one comes close to Thad Cochran, (R-Miss.) with 204 earmarks — that he either sponsored or co-sponsored — totaling $470 million.

Cochran is followed by five-term Democratic senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, at $292 million.

Topping the list of solo earmarkers — the individual who could get the highest amount of projects in dollar value — is the man long known as the “king of pork,” non other than 91-year-old Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd, who could take back $155 million to West Virginia.
California pulled down 15 percent of all earmark dollars with $1.2 billion, followed by New York, Florida, Washington D.C., Texas and Illinois.

The biggest loser could be Wyoming, which secured just 33 earmarks worth $17 million, followed by Maine, Nebraska, Delaware and New Hampshire.

But gross numbers tell only half the story.

Per capita, California and Wyoming actually received approximately the same amount of money — $30 per person.

Washington D.C.’s citizen could fair the best, with almost $1,000 allotted per person, much of it going to build a new headquarters for Homeland Security and $747,000 to remove driftwood from the Potomac River.

Georgia stands to get the least per capita: $10 per resident.
Congress may also be handing out $500,000 to The National Council of La Raza, a Latino rights group.

Defenders of the current system say earmarks aren’t the problem, since they represent only 1 percent of total spending. But critics say earmarks are a foothold of future long-term, systemic waste, and a symbol of lawmakers’ inability to spend taxpayer money with the same care as taxpayers do.

FOX:

GOP Cross-Overs Have Earmarks to Gain in $410 Billion Spending Bill
Almost all of the Republican senators who are either expected to support the spending bill or are considering supporting it have millions of dollars worth of earmarks in the package.

Senate Democrats are expected to win over just enough Republicans to move forward on a controversial $410 billion spending bill by the end of the night Tuesday.

But it may come as no surprise that almost all of the Republican senators who are expected to support the bill or are considering supporting it have billions of dollars worth of earmarks in the package.

The earmark-mania is not unique to either party — both Democrats and Republicans contributed to what Taxpayers for Common Sense estimates is 8,570 disclosed earmarks worth $7.7 billion in the bill that would fund the government through the end of the fiscal year.

But the Republican crossovers in particular have a lot at stake in the package. Two of the three Republicans on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s “definite” list have authored 129 total earmarks worth $190 million, according to an updated list from Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., is actually the second-biggest earmarker, according to the list, with 64 earmarks worth $114 million. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., is a few notches down, with 65 earmarks worth $76 million.

Both are expected to support the omnibus bill — along with Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, who has zero earmarks.

They would help Reid get the 60 votes needed to shut off debate on the bill and move it toward final passage. A number of other Republicans are considered possible supporters, and all of them have earmarks to gain.

Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., for instance, has $86 million in earmarks; Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has $74 million; and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has $25 million. Shelby told FOX News Monday that he’s vetted all his earmarks.

“I wouldn’t want to be associated with an earmark on an appropriation that didn’t have a lot of merit to it,” he said, adding that the system has been abused by some lawmakers. “What we need to do is vet it more and more. I wouldn’t want to give up our right to appropriate money,” he said. “Otherwise, we cede it to the president, whoever that is. … But on the other hand, any earmark you have, it ought to have merit, or we shouldn’t do it.”

Shelby’s earmarks span the gamut, from $800,000 for oyster rehabilitation at the University of South Alabama, to $380,000 to the city of Tarrant, Ala., for streetscaping and walkways.

The top earmarker, by value, is a Democrat — Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, with $123 million worth of earmarks. The senator with the most earmarks, regardless of their value, is Specter with 134.

Other Republicans, like Sen. John McCain, have tried unsuccessfully to strip the earmarks from the bill. But Democratic Sens. Evan Bayh of Indiana and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin also broke off from their party out of opposition to spending measures like the earmarks.

“It looks as if Congress is just on autopilot, immune to the problems” of Americans, Bayh told a Sunday talk show.