Sen. McCaskill

UPDATED

WASHINGTON — As a first-term senator, Claire McCaskill surely is irritating colleagues with her campaign against their time-honored practice of earmarking — deploying seniority and committee clout to direct big-bucks projects back home.

It may not go over well in some…

UPDATED: Republican House members said one leading option for returning some of the stimulus funds to taxpayers was a .5 percent cut for two years in the state’s individual income tax rate. While the Senate has shown less interest in…

Claire McCaskill

WASHINGTON — You may or may not have read a piece out of this bureau yesterday pitting Missouri Sens. Claire McCaskill and Christopher “Kit” Bond on the matter of earmarks.

In short, their approaches to attaching pet projects to spending bills belie party labels: McCaskill,…

Sen. Bond

WASHINGTON – It’s doubtful, despite what President Barack Obama said this morning in signing into law that big-whoppin’ $410 billion government spending bill chock full of special spending projects earmarked by senators and House members.

But if Washington follows Obama’s lead, Sen. Claire McCaskill might…

McCaskill

WASHINGTON –Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., brought a dual attack on earmarks this afternoon: a resolution to cut down on the practice and a verbal lashing on the Senate floor of GOP leaders who embrace them.

McCaskill, poking a pencil at the…

Sen. McCain

WASHINGTON — That $1.5 million for technology upgrades at North Central Missouri College in Trenton, engineered by Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond, is safe.

So is the $1.2 million for the interoperable mobile data communications system sought by Rep. Sam Graves and the $143,000…

Sen. Kit Bond, at a campaign event last year for Kenny Hulshof

WASHINGTON — Once upon a time, the term earmark applied to the slice in the ear of pigs and other livestock to show who owned them and any other information…

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., is promoting her participation in a bipartisan Senate effort to curb “earmarks,” the spending that senators add to a bill during conference committees, and that rarely are subject to pre-approval debates or hearings.

McCaskill joined Sen.…