Lawmakers Scarf Farm Bill Pork
WASHINGTON–Sen. Claire McCaskill slipped off her fiscal-discipline diet Thursday when she voted for the $300-billion-plus farm bill, which critics have blasted as a pork-laden boondoggle for well-to-do farmers, the biodiesel industry, timber interests, and other beneficiaries.But the Missouri Democrat and former state auditor did take at least a symbolic knife to the measure, trying unsuccessfully to trim one earmark inserted by House Democrats from the West Coast: a $170 million provision for struggling salmon farmers.
McCaskill singled out that item because it had been “airdropped” in by negotiators after the farm bill had passed the House and Senate, thereby bypassing committee scrutiny and floor debate. After the Senate rejected her parliamentary move, McCaskill voted for the underlying bill, saying it was “not perfect” but better than doing nothing.
Sens. Christopher “Kit” Bond, R-Mo., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., also supported the measure. Neither senator had funding earmarks in the legislation, although both had legislative provisions included. Bond, for example, worked with Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, to include a a measure creating the National Institute of Food Agriculture, a research program aimed at bolstering American farmers as they face increased foreign competition and food-safety concerns.
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