Senate Rejects Reallocation Amendment

Last week, freshman Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) tried, in vain, to trim some of the pork from the 2005 Transportation Bill and reallocate that money to infrastructure repairs post-Hurricane Katrina. His biggest target was the $223 million "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska, a pet project of Senate Transportation Chair Ted Stevens (R-AK) who railed, " if the Senate decides to discriminate against our state and take money only from our state, I will resign from this body." The Senate was moved, not to tighten our collective belt (aka "the budget"), but to honor Stevens' outrage over Coburn's pragmatism, and, dare we say, reflection of traditional Republican fiscal values.

To no one's surprise, the amendment failed, 82-15.

Those Senators voting for the amendment (to reallocate funds) deserve, I believe, a hearty round of applause. They were overwhelmingly Republican (11-4): Allard (R-CO), Allen (R-VA), Bayh (D-IN), Burr (R-NC), Coburn (R-OK), Conrad (D-ND), DeMint (R-SC), DeWine (R-OH), Feingold (D-WI), Graham (R-SC), Kyl (R-AZ), Landrieu (D-LA), Sessions (R-AL), Sununu (R-NH), and Vitter (R-LA). Three Senators did not vote: Corzine (D-NJ), McCain (R-AZ) and Schumer (D-NY).

Coburn has reproduced a Wall Street Journal editorial on the matter as well as news reports from the Washington Post and the New York Times.

Technorati Tags and Profile
Federal Budget, Politics, Senate, Transportation