On Monday evening, in the final hours of debate on the $410 billion Omnibus Appropriations Bill that passed the Senate yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) offered an amendment that would have effectively erased all so-called “earmarks” from the final legislation.
The amendment was soundly defeated, but Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), oddly enough, voted for the amendment, which would have eliminated all of the earmarks she secured in the bill—one estimate puts Cantwell’s earmark total at about $78 million. She was one of only four Democrats that voted for McCain’s amendment, which was defeated 63-32. largely along partisan lines (GOP aye, Democrats nay.)
The rest of those Democratic Senators—Sens. Evan Bayh (D-IN), Russell Feingold (D-WI) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO)—also voted against the final appropriations bill, which passed, with Cantwell’s vote, 62-35.
Reports say Cantwell has written in around 100 of her own earmarks, and the Taxpayers for Common Sense ranked her no. 49 on their list of Senate earmarkers.
This morning, Cantwell’s office released a statement going into minor detail on the appropriations the Senator helped secure for Washington State, including money for drug initiatives, agriculture funding, and $2 million for coast weather radar, among other funding.
The battle over earmarks—there are 9,000 in the final bill according to the Taxpayers for Common Sense—has reached a fever pitch in recent weeks, with McCain as one of the lead attackers. Sen. Patty Murray was ranked the No. 12 ”earmarker.”
The Appropriations bill was actually drafted last year, under the Bush Administration, and was bogged down in Congress for weeks as the Senate battled it out over the amount of targeted spending in the bill. Cantwell’s office notes that the final Appropriations bill contained five percent fewer earmarks than last year’s bill.
Cantwell’s office didn’t return a call about the vote this morning.
