Clinton can boast wealth of earmarks [View All]

[Ethelk2044]

Presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has secured more earmarks in the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill than any other Democrat except for panel Chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.).

The bill contains about $5.4 billion in earmarks, or projects not requested by the Pentagon. With their slim majority, the Democrats on the panel claimed two-thirds of that sum. Clinton is among their more junior members.

Obama, who is not a member of the committee, made a request along with several other members for a Department of Education program for children with severe disabilities.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a presidential candidate and the panel’s ranking member, has long opposed pork-barrel projects and has no earmark requests. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a new member of the panel, also refrained. The two have sponsored earmark-disclosure language as part of the bill’s markup.

In the 2008 defense authorization committee report, Senate authorizers published a list of projects requested by lawmakers as well as projects agreed upon by the entire panel. The list does not yet include the companies that would benefit from the extra money.

But several senators, including Levin and Clinton, have already touted their achievements in press releases listing companies in their state that would benefit from the requests.

Clinton received 26 earmarks worth about $148.4 million total, most of which were also sought by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). Clinton and Schumer agreed several years ago to go after projects together, according to several sources.

While Schumer has more seniority, Clinton has much higher name recognition and committee membership, which makes her better positioned to deliver projects for the state.


http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/clinton-can-boast-wealth-of-earmarks-2007-06-13.html