The Senate Preserves its Pork

Two more attempts to remove pork spending from the War on Terror/Hurricane Relief Supplemental Spending bill have been defeated in the United States Senate.

An amendment introduced by Senator John McCain to remove from the spending bill a $6,000,000 subsidy to be given to sugar cane growers in Hawaii was defeated this morning by a vote of 40-59. Hawaii is approximately 4000 miles away from the site of 2005’s major hurricane strikes.

Also, the fourth of the Coburn amendments was defeated this afternoon by a vote of 48-51. According to the Porkbusters website, the defated amendment would have eliminated a $500,000,000 subsidy that will now be given to Northrop-Grumman to compensate them for “disruption expenses” cause by Hurricane Katrina. This item is considered pork because Northrop-Grumman is already covered by insurance for its losses.

Senator Lincoln Chafee voted to cut both pork items, improving his record on supplemental spending pork votes to 4-0. Senator Jack Reed voted to approve both pork items, lowering his record to 1-3 voted against the Northrop-Grumman subsidy, but in favor of the sugar subsidy, bringing his record to 2-2.

UPDATE:

Alas, Senator Coburn has withdrawn porkbusting amendments 5 through 18 from the US Senate. Amendment 19 ("acceleration of construction of the Sacramento Riverbank Protection Project in California") will still be voted upon.

There was progress. Last year, fewer than 20 Senators supported porkbusting cuts like eliminating the "bridge to nowhere". This time around, 40 or more Senators regularly voted in favor of eliminating pork projects. Still, to seal the deal, the Porkbusters movement has to make Senators who want to keep your taxes high so they can engage in unrestrained pork spending fear for their jobs.