If you have heard the term ‘earmarking’ but don’t really know exactly what it means, here is the Wikipedia definition.
In the United States legislative appropriations process, Congress has, within the powers granted under Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution, the power to direct the appropriations of money drawn from the treasury. This includes the power to earmark funds it appropriates (in other words, “to designate revenue”) to be spent on specific named projects. The earmarking process is a regular part of the process of allocating funds within the federal government. Each of the appropriations subcommittees have their own practices for determining whether and what kind of projects they are willing to earmark, and each sets rules for how earmark requests are to be received from members, including setting deadlines and required format for submissions.
Allowing members of Congress to earmark funds has a variety of purposes. For the member of Congress, the earmark allows them to take credit for providing a project of interest to their constituents. Allowing earmarked projects is often a tool that Appropriations committee chairs use to ensure that they can secure and hold the votes of members of Congress to help their bill pass. An earmark directing specific projects to be funded allows agencies to bypass regulatory determinations over the matter, saving them administrative time and effort.
Earmarking differs from the broader appropriations process where Congress grants a lump sum to an agency to allocate according to the agency’s legal authority, within the discretion allowed by law, according to the agency’s internal budgeting process. Earmarks specifically direct the actions of federal agencies, obliging them to spend a portion of the budget on special projects as directed by Congress.
The House passed a bill making it a requirement that the authors of all earmarks be designated in spending bills. The Democrats in the Senate wanted to water down that requirement. Thankfully, they utterly failed. And we can thank a very conservative Senator, Jim DeMint of South Carolina.
Last week the House Democrats passed an unexpectedly broad change to their chamber’s rules that would disclose the size, purpose and sponsor of any earmark.
But on Thursday, when Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, introduced the same thing in the Senate, Democratic leaders moved quickly to squash it, calling the House bill ill thought out.
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, said he was happy to see the House “moving things along very quickly.” But, Mr. Reid said, “frankly, I don’t think they spent the time on this that we have.”
The Democratic leaders’ effort to block the DeMint proposal was defeated by a vote of 51 to 46, surprising almost everyone in the Senate.
I am going to put the roll call below the fold. Please consider sending a thank you note to all the Democrats that crossed the aisle to vote with DeMint. Joe Lieberman finally got a vote right, too.
This was a vote to kill DeMint’s amendment, so a ‘YEA’ vote is a vote against labeling earmarks.
Grouped By Vote Position
YEAs —46
Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bennett (R-UT)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Bunning (R-KY)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Clinton (D-NY)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dodd (D-CT)
Domenici (R-NM)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lott (R-MS)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Smith (R-OR)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
NAYs —51
Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Bond (R-MO)
Burr (R-NC)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Feingold (D-WI)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Harkin (D-IA)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lieberman (I-CT)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Nelson (D-FL)
Obama (D-IL)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Tester (D-MT)
Thomas (R-WY)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Warner (R-VA)
Webb (D-VA)
Not Voting – 3
Brownback (R-KS)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
