Senate Republicans join Democrats to nix legislation to remove earmarks from government funding bill

Senate Republicans joined forces with their Democratic counterparts to vote against legislation that would have removed earmark funding in the first of two government funding bills, further signaling that the once-dead practice is likely here to stay. 

The legislation came as an amendment from Sen. Rick Scott, Florida Republican, to the $460 billion, six-bill spending package that lawmakers were rushing to pass to avoid a partial government shutdown by midnight on Friday. 

Lawmakers shot down the amendment on a 64-to-32 vote, with some Senate Republicans joining their Democratic colleagues to bury it. 

Mr. Scott’s amendment sought to delay the spending package by at least a day to remove all earmark spending, which is a process lawmakers use to direct government spending to their home states for district-specific projects. 

The package, which passed the House on Wednesday, included over 6,600 earmarked projects to the tune of over $12 billion. The Senate later passed the package, and President Biden signed it early Saturday, averting a partial shutdown.

“This clearly isn’t about funding the government, it’s about funding pet projects for politicians like [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer,” Mr. Scott said. “Floridians have no interest in funding Schumer’s wish list. We must end this wasteful political corruption that Washington calls earmarks.”

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray, Washington Democrat, argued on the Senate floor that Mr. Scott’s amendment would have sunk the chances of passing the six-bill package with hours to spare before a partial government shutdown. 

“This would completely overrule other lawmakers on projects they requested and secured for their communities that they know best, not to mention it would sink this bill, all but ensuring a government shutdown,” Ms. Murray said. 

Earmarking, or “pork barrel spending,” returned to Congress in 2021 after a decade-long hiatus once Democrats took control of both chambers. Republicans took the House last year, and sought to instill more control over the process by limiting what types of projects lawmakers could try and earmark. 

The spending package, which included funding legislation for the VA, interior, agriculture, transportation, energy and water, and Justice Department, passed the lower chamber with the aid of Democrats despite being loaded with porcine spending.  

There will likely be another flood of earmarked projects in the second, six-bill spending package that Congress will need to pass to hit the final, March 22 deadline to completely fund the government. The text of the legislation has still not been released, but is expected the week of the funding deadline. 

That package includes funding legislation for the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Health and Human Services Department, among other major agencies.

Before the Senate’s earmark vote on Friday, Democratic Sens. John Fetterman and Bob Casey, both of Pennsylvania, rushed to nix the $1 million in spending dedicated to an LGBTQ center in Philadelphia that was reported to host sex parties. 

Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, argued in a floor speech that wanton pork-barrel spending was not in the Constitution, and that government spending should be geared toward general welfare of people in the country. He noted that earmarking funding for a project at a venue that hosts sex parties does not fit that description. 

“The senators from Pennsylvania stuck an earmark in here for public sex parties,” Mr. Paul said. “Does anybody think that’s for the general welfare?”