Senate Boosts Spending on Its Own Committees

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate decided on Thursday to raise its committees' allowances, prompting Senate Rules Committee Chairman Trent Lott to note that lawmakers were off to a poor start after pledging to curtail spending.

Committee spending for the next two years could run as high as $185 million, up from a $170 million ceiling in the past two years -- even though most committees did not actually spend their full allowances, the Mississippi Republican said.

After their losses in the November election, Democrats will have fewer committee seats. But their leader, Sen. Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) of Nevada, nonetheless managed to negotiate bigger budgets for Democratic committee staff.

"I got rolled... and I don't appreciate it," Lott told reporters.

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