Senate Won’t Allow Earmarks in Spending Bills

By CARL HULSE
NYT

Bowing to the inevitable, Senator Daniel K. Inouye, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced Tuesday that the panel would not allow pet spending projects known as earmarks to be included in this year’s appropriations bills.

Mr. Inouye, the nine-term Hawaii Democrat and an expert at steering money to his island state, conceded he did not have much choice since the Republican majority in the House had instituted its own ban and President Obama had also said he would veto any spending measure that contained earmarks.

“The handwriting is clearly on the wall,” Mr. Inouye said. “The president has stated unequivocally that he will veto any legislation containing earmarks, and the House will not pass any bills that contain them. Given the reality before us, it makes no sense to accept earmark requests that have no chance of being enacted into law.”

(More here.)