Senate Rejects Earmark Ban

Senators in both political parties are insisting on their right to send pet projects back to their states, even though presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton joined with GOP nominee-in-waiting John McCain in voting to ban them for one year.

By: WKRG Staff | WKRG-TV
Published: March 14, 2008

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CAPITOL HILL (AP) - Even with the backing of all three
presidential candidates, senators from both parties have decisively
killed a proposed one-year ban on lawmakers' home-state pet
projects.
The 71-29 Senate vote against the earmark moratorium came as
Congress pressed ahead with a budget plan. The non-binding
blueprint would call for saddling millions of Americans with higher
tax bills in three years by allowing some of President Bush's tax
cuts to expire after he leaves office.
The House passed a 3 trillion-dollar federal budget plan. It
would provide generous increases to domestic programs but bring the
government's ledger back into the black by letting all of Bush's
tax cuts die at the end of 2010 as scheduled.
The Senate endorsed extending 340 billion dollars of Bush's tax
cuts but balked at continuing all of them.
All three major presidential candidates -- John McCain, Hillary
Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama -- interrupted their campaigns to
cast votes on the budget plan.