Senate Duo Looks To Permanently Eliminate Earmarks

A bipartisan Senate duo introduced legislation Wednesday that would permanently eliminate earmarks. 

Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) told reporters that their bill was “an effort to change the culture of Congress” and reign in wasteful spending. 

“We can’t afford to waste money this way,” Toomey said. 

Just over a year ago, both Toomey and McCaskill spearheaded and were successful in implementing a moratorium on earmark spending. Unfortunately, members have been able to find loopholes around the moratorium, according to McCaskill.

“I was shocked when I saw the House Armed Services Committee put into the Defense Authorization bill hundreds of earmarks,” McCaskill said. “Now, they claimed they weren’t earmarks but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. And these were earmarks, no question about it. 

The discrepancies in processing earmarks have resulted in their mismanagement, and, according to Toomey, have resulted in nearly $33 billion in wasteful spending over the past 15 years. Toomey also argued that the process has become a method for members to lock in votes on bills earmarks are attached to. 

“Earmarks became a currency that was used to buy votes,” Toomey said. “If somebody asked for an earmark in a bill and they got their earmark, they were obligated to vote for the bill regardless of how  bloated [and] wasteful it was.”

As it stands, neither party’s leadership has been approached regarding the bill, but McCaskill said that if, after having been brought to the floor for a vote, members fail to vote for eliminating earmarks it would be “the cherry on top of Congress’ dysfuncitonal sundae.”

Ex-Arlington National Cemetery Head Leaves Senate Panel Scratching Heads

Philip Bunnell - Talk Radio News Service

Senate Homeland Security member Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) had harsh words for former Arlington National Cemetery Superintendent John Metzler on Thursday, asking him if family members will be sure that they are “standing at the real grave site of [their] loved one.”

Metzler ran the historic military burial ground for almost two decades. A recent investigation by the Army revealed that as many as 6,600 graves had been mismarked.

McCaskill, chair of a committee oversight panel, asked Metzler about the first date he felt something was wrong, and pressed former deputy superintendent Thurman Higginbothom about his reportedly strained relationship with Metzler. Higginbothom subsequently invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to make self-incriminating testimony.

Metzler said the situation “pained him personally,” and expressed his “deep regret” towards families that the mistakes may have affected. Metzler cautioned the committee not to rush to judgment on an issue of great “complexity and breadth.”

That didn’t go over too well with more than a few members. Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) expressed his frustration and contempt for the mismanagement, telling Metzler that he was “interested to hear what the excuses are, because I can’t think of any in my head.”

Tester also mocked Metzler. “This isn’t putting a man on the moon,” said the Senator. “There’s nothing really mystifying about burying our loved ones.”

Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) equated the scandal to crushing the soul of a child.

This is “like learning that there’s no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny,” he said. “There are so many questions, what have you, in fact, done?”

Congresswomen Speak on Women's Issues at Symposium

“At last [women] have a seat at the table,” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D - CA) exclaimed to a crowd of cheering supporters at the Symposium for Unconventional Women in Denver. Notable Congresswomen and other champions of women’s causes spoke on the issues facing women’s participation in the federal government. Protesters from anti-war organization Code:Pink interrupted Pelosi’s speech on several occasions to voice their opposition to the American military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In her speech Pelosi encouraged working women to run for federal office. “Isn’t it better to have working moms looking to Congress and seeing working moms?” she said. Pelosi’s words were echoed by Senator Claire McCaskill (D - MI) and Amy Klobuchar (D - MN) who recounted their experiences running for office as mothers.

The symposium also included women’s rights leaders Allana Goldman of She Should Run and Page Gardner of Women’s Voices, Women Vote. They noted the lack of single women running for office. Gardner said, “We can no longer afford to have single women sit on the sidelines of democracy.” Allana Goldman noted that while women tend to win elections at the same rate as men, too few are encouraged to run for office, a major reason that women constitute only 16% of Congress.

As Pelosi, the highest ranking female to hold office in the US, took the stage, members of Code:Pink rushed holding signs and pleading with the speaker to remove troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. One member denounced Pelosi from a balcony for supporting waterboarding and American military involvement in Afghanistan before being removed by security. Several members continued to interrupt Pelosi’s speech from the crowd, many insisting that Pelosi end the war. “I will stop the war,” Pelosi responded, while also saying she wished the protesters would “put their energy into voting for Barack Obama.”